Colgate products disappear from sale at Tesco

The UK's biggest toothpaste brand has begun disappearing from the shelves at the UK's biggest supermarket - but it's unclear exactly why.

Tesco said in a brief statement Colgate products were in short supply, adding it was well stocked with other brands.

Analysts said it could be due to a row over pricing as Colgate is widely available at other supermarkets.

Colgate's owner, the US consumer products giant Colgate-Palmolive, has been asked to comment.

The Grocer magazine, which first reported the shortages, said many Colgate products started becoming unavailable about two weeks ago online and in-store. It also said some products from the sister brand Palmolive were in short supply.

Tesco said in a statement: "We hope to have a full range of Colgate products available for customers again soon. In the meantime, we continue to have strong availability across all the other Oralcare products in our range."

The supermarket declined to explain the reason for the shortages, but appeared to admit in a tweet that products were being taken off the shelves.

A Tesco customer who complained about shortages received a tweet from the customer relations team telling her that the products "were removed due to a supplier issue".

Ged Futter, a former Asda executive and now director of consultancy The Retail Mind, said the dispute underlines tensions between suppliers and retailers over how much extra cost they can absorb in the current climate. Suppliers want to raise prices, supermarkets want to keep a lid on them.

"This spat between Tesco and Colgate-Palmolive is most likely due to a disagreement over inflation: how much Tesco are prepared to accept and whether Colgate will continue to supply," he told the BBC.

"At the moment, retailers are being hit by not just one wave of inflation but often second and third waves. The scale and size of the cost price increases is unprecedented.

"Some retailers just aren't accepting the inevitable, that prices will be increasing significantly for the foreseeable future."

Retail analyst Steve Dresser pointed out that Tesco has vowed to price-match Asda and Sainsbury's, but also hundreds of products on sale at discounter Aldi. Tesco products in-store and online even have an Aldi price sign.

In an interview on the BBC's Sunday Morning programme, Tesco chairman John Allan spoke of the challenge to keep the cost of shopping basket's down, mentioning the supermarket's price-matching with Aldi as part of its strategy.

Mr Allan forecast that food price inflation could hit 5% by the spring, and accepted that lower-income households would be hit hardest.

In 2016, Tesco was in a dispute with Marmite-maker Unilever over the price of products. The consumer goods giant wanted price increases and halted deliveries. The row was resolved, although the details were not disclosed.

Colgate has yet to respond to a request for comment.