The weak recovery rippled through the food chain Thursday as ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co. said it was able to raise prices 1.8% in its latest quarter while supermarket giant Safeway Inc. said it ended a recession-fueled cost-cutting campaign.
After a year of recession-weary consumers rejecting higher food prices, which battered the bottom lines of grocers, Steve Burd, Safeway chairman and chief executive officer, said during an earnings call with Wall Street analysts Thursday that the nation’s third-largest food retailer expects to see “moderate inflation” in 2010.
“There is a dramatic change in deflation that has already occurred between the fourth quarter and the first quarter,” said Mr. Burd, who didn’t offer a precise inflation forecast.
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