Consumer fears in the UK over supermarkets running out of festive items such as confectionery and other party foods has led Nestlé, the maker of Quality Street, to issue a statement saying it is 'working hard' to make sure the Christmas favourite treat is on shelves before 25 December.
As ConfectioneryNews reported earlier this week, the ongoing supply chain crisis in the country is threatening to derail the festive season, with UK shoppers already starting to to stockpile products for Christmas – with confectionery one of the top priorities.
The supply chain crisis has been caused by a lack of HGV drivers, availability of fuel at petrol stations and labour shortages caused in part by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nestlé Chief Executive Mark Schneider told the BBC: “We are seeing some labour shortages and some transportation issues but it's our UK team's top priority to work constructively with retailers to supply them”.
In a further statement, Nestlé, which also makes Smarties, Milkybars, Aeros, KitKats and Lion bars, said there would be plenty of Quality Street to go around this festive season.
“Like all businesses we are managing a number of challenges at the moment but we are working hard to mitigate those issues and are not seeing a material impact on supply. Our factory in Halifax manufactures up to 12m Quality Street sweets every day,” the company said.
Price rise
The latest crisis in the shops comes as nearly two-thirds of UK manufacturers plan to raise their prices in the run-up to Christmas due to rising inflation, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.
Its latest survey found 62% of manufactures expect to increase their prices over the next three months - the highest result since data gathering began at the end of the 1980s and exceeds the previous record of 38% in 2008.