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| The Unilever factory produces more than 50m jars of Marmite a year. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian |
eople in the town where Marmite is made have accused the product’s multinational owner company of “bully boy tactics” and using the weak pound as a smokescreen to raise prices on the English-produced spread.
At the local Tesco store, just under a mile from the Marmite factory at Burton upon Trent, there was even talk of a full boycott of Unilever’s products as shoppers described the move as scandalous. At the St Peter’s bridge store there were still around 30 jars of the spread on the shelves and there were no signs of panic-buying.
Pensioners Elspeth and Dennis Dickinson said they were planning to join the boycott, adding that the Staffordshire town was suffering from “Unilever fatigue” with the company repeatedly holding workers and local businesses to ransom.
Dennis, 70, said: “Everything about Marmite is local – the workers, the ingredients – so ultimately I do not understand their argument and it is just downright profiteering. We do like our Marmite as a family, especially our daughter, but we’re now going to boycott their products as we’ve had enough ofUnilever holding local businesses and their own workers to ransom.”
Meanwhile, Andrew Bradbury, 65, said many of his friends had been made redundant since the firm took over the plant a decade and a half ago and described the price hike as yet another disgraceful move.
Bradbury, who voted to remain in the EU, said many people in the town were already regretting voting to leave and claimed there was a feeling of foreboding as increasing numbers of businesses used similar tactics to hike up prices. Unilever is trying to increase the prices it charges Tesco by about 10%, citing the fall in sterling as the reason for the change.
He said: “I voted to remain for my grandchildren. I wanted to secure the future for them. I had a feeling businesses would do this but I still feel it is absolutely scandalous. Tesco are quite right to stand their ground. Saying that it is because of Brexit is just a convenient excuse.
“Since Unilever took over the factory there have always been issues but I don’t think it is going to end here and we will get penalised for Brexit for a very long time. They are holding local and national businesses to ransom and we need to take a stand against them.”
The Unilever factory, which sits in an industrial estate on the outskirts of the town, produces more than 6,000 tonnes of Marmite, around 50m jars, a year. Just 15% of the yeast extract is sent overseas and the rest is eaten in Britain, with 27 jars sold every minute.
The town’s beer heritage is an important factor: the basic ingredient of the spread is yeast sludge, a waste product left over from brewing beer, and there were once 30 breweries in the surrounding area. Now the raw materials come from across the UK .
Marmite fan Sean Savage said it was something people would have to accept as a consequence of Brexit. The 27-year-old carer said: “It is understandable that prices are going up and Tesco will just have to take on the price hike. I am a fan of Marmite and would be sad to see it go, so this is something that we will just have to accept.”
Meanwhile, retired postman Chris Hewitt. 63, stood firmly in Tesco’s camp, saying that Unilever’s argument was nonsensical as all the ingredients were sourced in Britain. He said: “What they are saying is just not true. All of the ingredients are locally sourced and this is just a way of making more profit for the shareholders. I can’t imagine it will filter down to the workers in the form of a pay rise.
“It is just extreme capitalism and they are behaving like bullies. This has got nothing to do with Brexit – it has got everything to do with making millions more in profit.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/oct/13/little-sympathy-unilever-in-town-burton-upon-trent-marmite-is-made
