Primark prices to be stable in 2023/24 year -AB Foods CEO

LONDON (Reuters) - Primark expects most of its prices to be stable in its 2023/24 year, the boss of its owner Associated British Foods said on Tuesday.

Primark's 15% sales growth in its 2022/23 year was partly driven by some price increases.

"There's a little bit of carry over benefit next year (2023/24) from pricing of autumn/winter that we've taken now and kidswear is going down quite significantly," AB Foods CEO George Weston told Reuters.

Excluding kidswear, he does not expect much deflation in the 2023/24 year.

AB Foods also owns a major grocery business, which includes Twinings tea, Jordans cereals and Ovaltine drinks.

Weston said the group had seen some input costs increase, such as tomatoes, onions and sugar, while the cost of grains, energy and freight had come down.

"At the moment we would say that those ups and downs by and large balance each other off. We're not expecting to have to systematically move prices up any more," he said.

Weston was talking after AB Foods raised its full-year profit outlook for the second time in four months.

(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle)