Britain is facing a shortage of savoury biscuits in the run-up to Christmas.
A raft of cream cracker SKUs are listed as out of stock on supermarket websites following the now resolved strike action at the Jacob’s factory in Aintree.
In Tesco, all cream cracker SKUs were out of stock online as The Grocer went to press.
A search on the Sainsbury’s website retrieved only one available own-label item.
On Asda’s website, only one Jacob’s cream cracker SKU – 200g – was available. Asda’s own-label cream crackers were also out of stock.
And in Morrisons, just one cream cracker product – from Nestlé-owned kosher brand Osen – was in stock.
It comes after workers at the Jacob’s factory in Aintree went on a “permanent strike” last month to protest what GMB Union called a “real terms pay cut”.
A spokeswoman for Jacob’s owner Pladis confirmed stocks had been “challenged by recent strike action at our Jacob’s bakery”.
“While negotiating with GMB Union, we have activated a temporary contingency solution with stocks expected to flow through from next week,” she said.
“We are hopeful that negotiations with GMB Union will conclude soon to allow us to continue making the great British products that consumers know and love.”
Since that statement, Pladis confirmed it had reached an agreement with the union on Wednesday afternoon and the strike had been called off.
GMB Union last month announced factory staff planned to walk out every day until Pladis agreed to negotiate.
A total of 751 members at Aintree have taken industrial action since early September
At the time, GMB said Pladis planned to move production of cream crackers to Portugal to mitigate the impact.
The Grocer has approached the retailers and GMB for comment.
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