Tesco pulls dozens of Unilever brands in 'Brexit' price row

Tesco (Frankfurt: 852647 - news) is refusing to sell dozens of Unilever (NYSE: UL - news) products on its website due to a row over price rises.

The supermarket giant has apparently rejected a Unilever request to increase prices by up to 10% because of the fall in the value of sterling.

The pound has fallen 17% since June's vote for Britain to leave the European Union.

Unilever is one of the world's biggest manufacturers of consumer products, and makes household brands including Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Marmite, Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise and Pot Noodle.

Many of these products are showing as being unavailable on Tesco's website, but the supermarket says it will still continue to sell existing supplies in its stores until they run out.

A spokesperson for Tesco said: "We are currently experiencing availability issues on a number of Unilever products. We hope to have this issue resolved soon."

Other family favourites affected by the dispute include Colman's mustard, PG Tips, Bovril, Stork, Flora, and the entire Wall's ice cream range.

Cosmetics and toiletries lines will also be trickier to find on Tesco shelves, as Unilever owns brands such as Vaseline, Radox, Tresemme, Lynx, Sure, Timotei and V05.

:: Marmite and mates the new front line in Brexit war

Tesco's chief executive, Dave Lewis, spent much of his career working at Unilever before jumping ship to join the supermarket two years ago.

Other supermarket chains are also believed to be embroiled in the row with Unilever, which generated profits of about £2bn in the first half of this year.

Sky (Frankfurt: 893517 - news) sources have confirmed that other supermarket chains have also expressed concerns about Unilever's stance.

Unilever has refused to comment, but in advance of June's referendum, chief executive Paul Polman did warn a Brexit vote would cause price rises.

While there was no mention of the dispute in its third quarter trading update to the City on Thursday, Mr Polman did express his satisfaction with Unilever's performance.

"Our business continues to demonstrate its resilience by growing competitively and consistently in tough market conditions," he said.

Unilever said while group underlying sales grew 3.2% in the three months to the end of September, sales at current currency rates fell by 0.1% reflecting a negative foreign currency hit.

Its share price was 1.4% down when markets opened for business on Thursday. Tesco's fell 1.8%.