JDE Peet’s, the company behind brands such as Douwe Egberts and Pickwick, saw its revenue increase significantly in the first half of this year. This was mainly because the company increased its prices by more than 20 percent. Profit did not grow along with it due to higher costs.
In the first six months of this year, the group achieved a turnover of more than 5 billion euros, 22.5 percent more than in the same period last year. This growth was almost entirely attributable to price increases of 21.5 percent.
Profit grew much less rapidly, reaching almost 1.7 billion euros, just over 2 percent more than last year. According to JDE Peet’s, it faced sharply higher purchase prices for unroasted coffee beans, which averaged 60 percent higher than before.
The company, which is listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange, clashed with supermarkets several times this year and last year over high coffee prices. This led to empty shelves for weeks. After that, prices in the supermarkets rose sharply.
Michiel Muller, CEO of online supermarket Picnic, said earlier this month that JDE Peet’s was no longer supplying its coffee due to a new conflict over prices. The European purchasing organization of Jumbo and Picnic would no longer receive Douwe Egberts from the company, which itself made no announcements on Wednesday about the status of the negotiations.