Cosmetics retailer Lush has joined the ranks of high street chains raising prices after reporting a recovery in profits last year.
Lush’s underlying profits more than quadrupled to £41.1 million in the year to June as cost cuts boosted the bottom line. Sales across the group, which trades from 919 shops across 48 countries, fell 6.6 per cent to £408.7 million.
Lush employs 8,638 people — about a quarter fewer than before the pandemic.
In the UK, Lush hiked prices by an average of 8.5 per cent in January and warned that inflationary pressures meant further rises were possible.
Fast-food chain Burger King will raise prices next month by 7 per cent. And last week, pub chain Wetherspoons said it had added 10p to the cost of a pint, rising to 20p in London.
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Lush chief executive Mark Constantine said the retailer’s decision to stop supplying its Russian business would force his licensee there, who was born in Ukraine, to shut some of the 48 shops in the country.
Constantine‘s priority was to look after Lush’s 600-plus staff in Russia and Ukraine. The rouble’s collapse meant that Russian trade was uneconomic for multinationals, regardless of ethics, he said.
