Fans of major restaurant chains Frankie & Benny’s and Wagamama across the north and north-east have been warned of rising food prices.
Owners The Restaurant Group (TRG) said it was battling soaring inflation and food and drink costs could rise by around nine per cent to 10 per cent over its full-year.
There are two Frankie & Benny’s restaurants in Aberdeen. One within Union Square and one at Queens Links Leisure Park at the Beach.
There is also a restaurant in Inverness at Inverness Shopping Park.
Wagamama has the one branch within Union Square.
TRG said ingredient prices have rocketed, with higher energy and fuel costs all pushing up the cost of food and drink.
The group said it continues to work with supply chain partners to offset some of the higher costs but cautioned it “remains a volatile inflationary market”, with price pressures compounded by the war in Ukraine.
But TRG said strong trading across its Wagamama and pubs businesses was helping mitigate soaring inflation, with like-for-like sales up 11 per cent and 6 per cent respectively versus 2019 pre-pandemic levels in the six weeks so far of its second quarter.
Food shopping prices rocketing
News of rising costs comes at the same time as new figures revealed the price of groceries has increased at its fastest rate for 13 years.
Researchers at Kantar revealed that grocery price inflation reached seven per cent over the past four weeks to mark the highest level since May 2009.
Dog food, savoury snacks and fresh meat saw particularly sharp price rises, although spirit prices slipped for the month.
Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said: “People are really feeling the squeeze at the supermarket tills and they’re having to stretch their budgets further to accommodate rising prices.
“To put the most recent numbers into context, if you were picking up supplies for a family fry-up over the long weekend with toast, eggs, sausages, bacon and beans it would cost you £6.83 – that’s a significant 40p increase on last year.”
Weekly food shop a concern
Kantar added that its recent survey found that 22 per cent of households are “struggling” to make ends meet, with the rising price of the weekly shop a concern for more than nine in 10 of these people.
The latest figures also reported that supermarket sales dropped by 4.4 per cent over the 12 weeks to May 15.
It reflected a softer decline than previous periods, with sales over the last four weeks only down 1.7 per cent.
The research firm said it represented the strongest month since Christmas.
