The second-quarter earnings season so far is showing that one trend that featured in the first quarter has not gone away.
“Greedflation,” or the practice of companies raising prices to protect their profit margins, is alive and well, based on the number of companies that have so far acknowledged raising prices yet again, even as inflation readings have come down and as some acknowledge that their input costs are falling.
Procter & Gamble Co. PG , for example, said it raised prices by up to 9% in its latest quarter, after raising them up to 10% the previous quarter and up to 10% in the same quarter in 2022. Gross margin increased 380 basis points from a year ago, driven by 340 basis points of pricing benefit and 290 basis points of productivity savings.
For more, see: Consumers are now ‘hunkering down’ rather than ‘trading down’ on groceries, Conagra says At Campbell Soup Co. CPB , sales for its fiscal third quarter were up 5%, led by “favorable net price realization,” as the company disclosed as the very first bullet point in its release. Campbell raised prices of meals and beverages by 9% and if snacks by 15%, after raising them by 15% and 13%, respectively, in the second quarter.Kraft Heinz Co.