Sainsbury's cuts toilet paper prices as pulp drops

Sainsbury's is cutting the price of its own-brand toilet paper as supermarkets face pressure to do more to help people with the soaring cost of living.

The retailer said its loo roll prices would drop by up to 11% as it passed on savings from the falling cost of pulp.

Grocery price inflation is stubbornly high and retailers face claims they are not passing on falling wholesale costs to customers.

Supermarkets deny profiteering and have cut the price of some basics recently.

Sainsbury's, Tesco, Aldi and Lidl have all reduced bread, milk and butter prices in the last few months.

Loo roll is more expensive in the UK compared to some of our biggest European neighbours, research for the BBC showed last week.

Our snapshot suggested that shoppers in the UK were typically paying £3.80 for toilet roll when a comparable pack costs £2.66 in Italy and £2.87 in Germany.

However, the price of pulp - which is used to make paper and tissue - has been falling globally due to weaker demand.

Rhian Bartlett, food commercial director at Sainsbury's, said: "After more than two years of inflation on the price of pulp, we are now seeing a decline which is enabling us to pass savings directly on to our customers and reduce the price of our own brand toilet roll."

Last year, the war in Ukraine pushed up the price of food and energy but recently those prices have fallen sharply.

However, food prices in the UK continued to surge at the fastest rate in nearly 45 years in April, with staples like sugar and pasta up sharply.

The Competition and Markets Authority has launched an investigation into high food and fuel prices, saying it will look at whether a "failure in competition" meant customers are overpaying.

The regulator has already found some supermarkets have increased margins on petrol and diesel.

Grocers have denied profiteering, with the British Retail Consortium saying stores are working to keep prices "as low as possible".

Supermarkets say there is usually a lag before falling wholesale prices are reflected in the shops due to the long-term contracts retailers sign with food producers.