The UK retail and hospitality industries have called on new chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to provide urgent financial support in his mini-Budget on Friday to offset the “cost of business” crisis unleashed by surging inflation (Financial Times £).
Kwasi Kwarteng and Andrew Bailey have vowed to team up to get Britain out of trouble, but one wants to go for growth, the other to tame inflation. The Sunday Times (£) asks if their policies can co-exist in a key week for the UK economy.
The owner of McVitie’s has warned of more pain for biscuit lovers as the combination of a volatile wheat market and wider inflationary pressures look set to push up prices further next year (Financial Times £).
The co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s have accused parent company Unilever of usurping its independent board as the ice cream brand fights a court case in the US over sales in occupied Palestinian territories (The Financial Times £).
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield said Unilever’s sale of the Israeli business to a local franchisee who could sell products in the West Bank was a violation of their $326m deal agreed in 2000 (The Times £).
The pair, who founded the company in Vermont in 1978 with a mission to “advance human rights and dignity”, said they could no longer “sit idly by” after Unilever sold its interest in the ice-cream to an Israeli licence holder (The Guardian).
Naked Wines has turned to its founder and former chief executive to help it to get through the financial and operational woes that have led to two profit warnings in the past three months (The Times £). The online wine retailer said that Rowan Gormley, who retains a 2.9% stake, had been appointed as an adviser to the board “as it finalises its revised operational and financial plans for the business”.
Waitrose is bracing for an uptick in sales of its Duchy Originals range – which was started by King Charles in 1990 (Daily Mail). The upmarket grocer said that sales of the line, which includes vine tomatoes, green beans and blueberries, were likely to receive a boost.
Nestle’s profits in the UK surged last year as the consumer giant increased prices and shoppers spent more on its products during repeated pandemic lockdowns (The Mail on Sunday).
Major convenience store chains are selling pints of milk at a higher price per litre than petrol after inflation sent grocery prices soaring (The Telegraph).
The Sunday Times (£) asks: “Are we reaching peak Aldi and Lidl?” In the cost of living crisis the discounters are surging, but suitable sites for new shops are hard to find.
The increasing pressure on consumers has extinguished any hopes of a rebound in sales of plant-based meat this year, dealing a blow to a sector that was an investors’ favourite when shoppers were prepared to pay higher prices for the product (The Financial Times £).
The EU wastes more food than it imports and could puncture food price inflation by simply curbing on-farm waste, according to a report (The Guardian).
Western attempts to wean their economies off Russian oil risk substantially raising global oil prices and worsening a global food crisis, a leading central banking institute has warned (The Times £).
Liz Truss has admitted that a UK-US trade deal, long seen as one of the biggest prizes of Brexit, is not on the horizon, as she arrived in New York on her first overseas trip as prime minister (Financial Times £).
The new prime minister conceded that talks were unlikely to start in the “medium term” as she travelled to New York on her first foreign trip since entering Downing Street (The Guardian).
The Times (£) says in a market report that broker Berenberg isn’t ready to buy into the recovery story at Fevertree Drinks.
The shares column in The Sunday Times (£) tips Treatt as one to watch following a 30% slump last month. “For investors willing to sit out the impact of recession, Treatt’s current issues aren’t structural — and the bedrock of its business looks like it could fulfil the promise of its name.”
The Mail on Sunday interviews Pret a Manger CEO Pano Christou about the challenges of managing the chain during a global pandemic, a war and an energy crisis.
Spending on takeaways and meals out will be first for the chop if a squeeze on incomes bites this autumn, a survey suggests (Daily Mail).
Mothercare has warned it could run out of cash if customers tighten purse strings too much during the cost of living crisis (Daily Mail).
Vegan food giant Beyond Meat’s chief operating officer has been arrested for reportedly biting a man’s nose during a row in the US (BBC News). Douglas Ramsey, 53, faces charges of “terroristic threatening” and third-degree battery, court records show.
The Guardian asks: “Are customer loyalty programs ever a good deal?”
A quirk of market abuse regulations forced a quoted restaurant group to issue its half-year results yesterday, even though it was a bank holiday to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral (The Times £). Tasty, operator of the Wildwood and DimT chains, had intended to issue its interims at 7am today, but was told by Cenkos, its broker, that it had to push the button 24 hours earlier.
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