Nestle HQ

Nestlé announced that chief executive Mark Schneider was stepping down, and will be succeeded by company veteran Laurent Freixe, following a period of underperformance at the world’s largest food manufacturer (Financial Times £).

A feature in The Guardian looks at ho Gail’s became middle-class England’s most powerful political bellwether. “Seats hosting the upmarket chain were key to the Lib Dems’ Tory-ousting strategy in July’s election,” the paper writes. “But, after recent protests, Gail’s is much more controversial than it seems.”

The owner of Jack Daniel’s whisky has become the latest company to scrap its diversity targets following a backlash from conservatives (Telegraph £). Brown-Forman has told staff it will stop linking executive pay to progress on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Growth in the UK economy is expected to ease, according to the newly published purchasing managers’ index for August, as the debate continues about the inheritance left by the Conservatives (The Times £).

Optimism over the health of the UK economy has slipped for the first time in five months, prompting consumers to prioritise saving over spending, a long-running survey suggests (The Times £).

Jamie Oliver and his wife, Jules, paid themselves a £2.5m dividend last year – nearly two-thirds less than a year before – after launching their company’s first directly owned restaurant since the collapse of the Jamie’s Italian chain (The Guardian).

Starbucks’ new CEO continnues to make headlines after his 1,000-mile commute by private jet is revealed, with Greenpeace criticising it as an ‘unjustifiable perk’ (The Times £).

The business editorial in the Telegraph (£) fumes that the jet-setting Starbucks boss makes a mockery of the company’s green agenda, exposing the coffee chain’s patent hypocrisy.

Britain’s wide-ranging overhaul of the listing rules has made it more attractive to join the London stock market, a senior executive at the first company to take advantage of the reforms has said (The Times £).

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