M&S under fire for selling two slices of plain bread for £4.50

Marks & Spencer has been criticised for selling two slices of plain bread for as much as £4.50.

The retailer is facing calls to justify the price of its “Pan de Cristal” product, a traditional Spanish bread from the Catalan region.

M&S sells the bread in packs of two slices for as much as £4.50 in some stores. M&S describes the product, also known as glass bread, as “a light, crisp bread perfect for toasting and topping with our crushed tomato bread topper”.

The recommended accompaniment – the 250ml crushed tomato bread topper, a puree made up of tomatoes, olive oil and salt – costs an additional £2.65.

In a recent post on LinkedIn, Stuart Machin, the M&S chief executive, said the product was one of his favourite new releases.

However, customers have raised questions about the product’s value for money. In a video on TikTok, a shopper asked: “What in the hell is this £4 half piece of baguette about?”

Another social media user said: “The joke is, you get this in Spain for €2 [£1.80].”

Chris Young, from the Real Bread Campaign, said M&S should justify the price “given the economies of the enormous scale at which even supposedly ‘artisan’ supermarket loaves are manufactured”.

He said the price point was in the “ballpark that small independents need to charge in order to remain financially viable”, adding: “Can the same be said of a supermarket?”

Pan de Cristal is priced well above M&S’s standard range, costing more than 25 times as much as a white loaf when measured on a weight basis. Customers can buy a thick sliced loaf for 9p per 100g, compared to £2.50 per 100g for the Pan de Cristal.

The Spanish bread even costs more than Sicilian Nocellara Del Belice olive oil and an M&S jar of cherries in kirsch when measured by weight.

The steep prices comes as Britain faces renewed cost of living pressures. The latest figures show that grocery prices rose by 4.7pc in the four weeks to Nov 2 compared with the same period a year earlier.

The Treasury has said tackling food inflation is a “priority”. In a speech this month, Rachel Reeves promised she would “bear down” on inflation in her Budget.

Supermarkets have blamed the Chancellor for fuelling food inflation after raising employers’ National Insurance and minimum wage in last year’s Budget.

Mr Machin last week said shoppers were preparing for the worst in the upcoming Budget later this month. He said: “Customers are worried about rising costs, they’re very worried about tax rises. They think things are heading in the wrong direction.”

A spokesman for M&S said the retailer offered “a broad range of products at different price points” including 75p loaves and half-baguettes at 80p.

They said its Pan de Cristal range was designed to be enjoyed as “a starter or as part of a tapas style meal”, adding that products had proven very popular, with 75,000 packs being sold since launch and more than 5,000 bought per week in summer.

The spokesman said: “We know our customers want different products for different occasions from a weekday breakfast with the family to serving friends restaurant-quality tapas at home using the best authentic Spanish products.

“In fact, we know that more people are choosing to eat something different or special at home instead of going out. Our tapas-style Spanish Pan de Cristal is made with restaurant-quality ingredients including Spanish-made bread from the Catalan region and extra virgin olive oil.”