New figures indicate Britain's crisp crisis is easing

Supply chain problems have been common in Britain due to shifts in consumer demand, the availability of workers, and Brexit.

Former footballer Gary Lineker promotes Walkers crisps in a classic advert.

Fewer shops in Britain have shortages of potato crisps this week than the week before, official figures showed, in a sign that the supply crisis for the popular snack food is easing.

Some 24% of food shops surveyed by Kantar Public for Britain's Office for National Statistics (ONS) — the equivalent to the CSO in Ireland — had no or low stocks of multi-packs of crisps between November 19 and November 22, down from 30% the week before.

Britain's biggest crisp producer Walkers, part of Pepsi, had to scale back production at the start of the month after problems with an IT systems upgrade, which it warned could take weeks to fix.

Supply chain problems have been common in Britain and elsewhere as businesses adjust to shifts in consumer demand and the availability of workers following the Covid-19 pandemic and, in Britain's case, Brexit.

The ONS said 14% of businesses it surveyed reported labour shortages in late November, similar to the month before. 

This rises to 38% in the accommodation and food services sectors, which shed many staff during the pandemic and often relied heavily on EU workers.

The Bank of England is looking closely at the job market for signs of pay pressures — or, conversely, higher unemployment after the end of furlough support on October 1 — as it considers whether to raise interest rates on December 16.

Earlier official data showed a record 1.172m UK job vacancies in the three months to the end of October.

Today's data showed the volume of online job adverts was 44% above its pre-pandemic level — the same as the week before — while consumer spending on credit and debit cards was 3% higher than before the pandemic, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. 

Reuters