Morrisons and M&S have become the latest supermarkets to cut the price of basics as retailers face pressure to do more to tackle soaring living costs (BBC News).
Marks & Spencer is cutting the price of its most popular items, which include avocados, smoked salmon and ciabatta rolls, as it battles to win middle-class shoppers (Telegraph).
The Times (£) writes that “this is not just a price cut, this is a Marks & Spencer price cut”. The chain said that it was lowering the price of nearly 70 “family staples”, while freezing the cost of 150 other items.
The announcement came hot on the heels of Morrisons’ revelation that it would lower the prices of 47 items by an average of 25 per cent across a range of ‘high-volume’ goods (Mail).
Food and manufacturing production costs in Britain fell in May for the first time in seven years, raising optimism that food prices inflation may be starting to cool (The Times £).
The partnership behind John Lewis and Waitrose has written down the value of its head offices by £15.6m, providing the latest sign that the work-from-home revolution and higher interest rates are depressing commercial property valuations (The Times £).
A major boardroom reshuffle at British American Tobacco will create a new chief operating officer role and result in six executive job moves, as the cigarette maker’s new chief attempts to move faster towards products such as vapes and revive US growth (Financial Times £).
Johan Vandermeulen has been promoted from chief transformation officer to chief operating officer to “be accountable for driving business performance, operational excellence and best-in-class execution” (The Times £).
Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company has agreed to acquire the owner of Finlandia vodka for $220m (£172m) (Mail).
Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company has bought the vodka from Brown-Forman, the American spirits group behind Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey and Chambord liqueur (The Times £).
The Tempus shares column in The Times (£) offers up Sainsbury’s as a ‘buy’. “Management should be capable of taking advantage of opportunities while takeover prospects gather momentum.”
Wage inflation and better weather have encouraged customers to buy more clothes, the boss of UK high street bellwether Next said on Monday, prompting the group to upgrade profit forecasts (Financial Times £).
The company, which has about 500 stores and is considered a good barometer of consumer spending, said in a surprise update that there had been an “over-performance” in sales over the past seven weeks, sending its share price nearly 5% higher and making it the top riser on the FTSE 100 (The Guardian).
The Lex column in the Financial Times (£) examined EU deforestation law and declares that “root and branch reform is long overdue.” The paper writes that Belgian chocolate producer Barry Callebaut is among the companies likely to suffer a profits hit from the new law related to consumer products.
Amazon has pledged to hire at least 5,000 refugees across Europe over the next three years as part of a new drive by dozens of companies to help recruit people fleeing war in Ukraine and other crisis-stricken regions (Financial Times £).
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