UK supermarkets have more than doubled their margins on fuel since the start of the war in Ukraine, according to recent data from the RAC..
Before the conflict, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s were making a margin of just under 5p (4.7p) per litre on fuel, with 3.7p for petrol and 5.7p for diesel.
However, these margins have now more than doubled to 10p (9.3p for petrol and 10.8p for diesel), leading to higher pump prices according to the report.
Lower fuel prices helped drive a drop in the Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation last month to 7.%, down from 8.7% in May.
RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said the decline could have been even sharper if supermarket pump price reductions were “in line with cheaper wholesale costs”.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
He said: “We accept the cost of running forecourts might have increased, but these bloated margins must make difficult reading for millions of drivers battling the rising cost of living.
“In short, this means everyone is paying more than they should be to a lesser or greater extent depending on where they live.
“We hope artificially high pump prices will become a thing of the past due to the actions promised by the government from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) report this month that showed supermarkets had overcharged drivers to the tune of £900m last year.
“Their recommendation that a price monitoring body is set up and that retailers are mandated to provide live prices for fuel finder apps is very welcome and long overdue.”
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
