Supermarket sandwiches are about to become more expensive with the minimum wage set to rise by £1 an hour in April.

The boss of Greencore, who make sandwiches for some of the UK's biggest supermarkets, including Sainsbury's, M&S and Co-op, said the wage increase will create an additional £30m in costs each year.

"Obviously you do everything you can to mitigate it by operational efficiencies and all the good work that all companies try," said Greencore's chief executive Dalton Philips.

He added: "But at the end of the day, it’s £30m, and you can’t mitigate it all. And some of that does seep into price rises."

The company, which is the UK's biggest sandwich maker, produces nearly 800 million sandwiches a year.

Mr Philips continued: "We’re hugely supportive (of wages rising), because if you can get wages moving again, that’s going to ultimately put more money in people’s pockets. But the reality is, on our wage bill, it is a material increase."

FTSE 100

The UK's flagship share index, the FTSE 100, was up 56-points at 7,589, shortly after opening this morning.

Brent crude oil futures were down 0.53% today, trading at $81.99 a barrel.

Companies reporting today

  • Paragon Banking Group - Q1 Trading Statement
  • Volvo AB - Q4 Results
  • WH Smith - Trading Statement

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