By Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Business
(CNN) – Procter & Gamble, one of the nation’s largest consumer goods manufacturers, said on Tuesday it was raising the prices of some grooming, beauty and oral care products for customers of retail in order to combat rising costs.
This is the latest round of price hikes announced by the company. Other major manufacturers and consumer goods stores have also price increase in response to increased spending on raw materials and transportation.
P&G said it communicated the latest increases to distributors and retailers over the past few weeks, and they will take effect in the next 90 days or so.
If P&G retail customers, which include big box stores, supermarkets, drugstores and more, decide to pass on these increases, they will soon hit the consumer wallet.
P&G, which makes brands such as Gillette, Braun and SK-II, did not say which skincare, beauty and oral care brands it is raising prices for retailers on. But an email from P&G to a distributor obtained by CNN Business says Olay, Crest and Oral-B products will become more expensive, at least for retailers.
The exact amount of the price increases will vary depending on the specific item, but will fall within an average single-digit percentage range, P&G CFO Andre Schulten said in a call with analysts Tuesday.
“The degree and timing of these movements are very specific to the category, to the brand and sometimes to the form of the product within a brand. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach,†he said.
According to an in-store distributor, P&G sent an email on Oct. 11 informing the company that on Jan. 11 it would increase the prices of Olay Regenerist Max by 6.1%, the Regenerist Ultra Rich and Regenerist ingredient collections of 3.5%, Olay Age Defy moisturizers from 15.3% to 19.3% and Olay complete moisturizers from 15.3% to 19.8%. The distributor shared the email on condition of anonymity to protect its relationship with P&G.
P&G has also alerted this distributor that it will increase the prices of certain varieties of Crest and Oral-B mouthwashes from 12% to 32.5%, battery toothbrushes from 4% to 20% and toothbrushes. electric 10%, as well as the prices on certain grooming products. produced by a weighted average of 11%. P&G did not say which grooming items would become more expensive.
“This list price increase is intended to address a specific part of the input cost inflation that occurred when commodity prices increased,” P&G said in the email.
P&G declined to comment.
Previously, P&G announcement that it increased the prices of brands such as Pampers diapers and Always and Tampax tampons in September. Schulten said Tuesday that P&G had raised prices in nine of 10 categories in its product line.
Costs are increasing at a faster rate than P&G previously estimated. P&G now plans to spend an additional $ 2.3 billion on freight and freight costs for its 2022 fiscal year. The company predicted in July an increase of $ 1.9 billion in those costs.
“Input costs have continued to rise since we gave our first outlook for the year,†said Schulten.
Despite higher prices, consumers are not changing their shopping habits by purchasing less P&G products, he said.
The Albertsons grocery chain also noted on Monday that consumers had not adjusted their buying behavior in response to the price hike.
“We haven’t seen any significant change in customer behavior,†CEO Vivek Sankaran said on a call with analysts. “We don’t see their intention changing drastically over the next few weeks and months.”
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