Retail news round-up: British supermarkets plan to reduce packet sizes to curb prices, and Smiggle plans to expand in Scotland

UK supermarkets set to shrink packages to hide cost increases

UK supermarkets are poised to shrink packets in order to absorb higher prices triggered by the Brexit vote, This is Money reported.

Customers would end up paying more overall, warned the Bank of England.

This comes after a regular panel survey of major businesses.

Sticker prices would remain the same because of 'price sensitive' consumers.

The Bank of England said: "Some food retailers were re‑engineering products to maintain existing prices. In non‑food goods, some retailers were starting to increase prices in response to rising material costs, particularly for products sourced in US dollars, but the impact was expected to be seen more fully through 2017."

Smiggle plans to expand in Scotland following sales growth

Australian stationery brand Smiggle plans to expand its business in Scotland following a massive global sales growth due to its UK expansion, The Scotsman reported.

Total global sales increased by 42% to A$188m (£110m), with 52 new stores opened over the 12-month period to end-July. Smiggle currently has 74 stores in the UK with plans to open five more branches in Scotland in the first half of 2017.

Smiggle entered the UK market in February 2014 and states it is on track to open 200 stores in the UK by 2019.

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