Waitrose is planning to fight back in the battle for customers with a major revamp of swathes of its aging store estate. The supermarket has reduced range of yoghurts and ditches water in effort to boost sales and has been cutting costs to free up cash for an overhaul of its 332 stores (Telegraph).
An analysis in The Guardian examines five reasons why John Lewis and Waitrose are having a tough year. “Financial woes, cost of living crisis and tougher competition are among problems that have led to expected second ever full-year loss.”
The sudden departure of Pippa Wicks from John Lewis followed a culture clash between the turnaround expert and her paternalistic employer, according to The Sunday Times (£). “Wicks’s hard-charging management style is understood to have chafed against the partnership’s more genteel culture,” the paper writes.
2023 could be the year that makes or breaks struggling John Lewis, argues an Agenda column in The Sunday Times (£).
The government’s food tsar, Henry Dimbleby, has blamed Britain’s “weird supermarket culture” for recent food shortages, calling it a “market failure” (The Guardian).
Henry Dimbleby said “fixed-price contracts” between supermarkets and suppliers meant that when food is scarce, some producers sell less to the UK and more elsewhere in Europe (BBC News).
The Telegraph exlpores how Tesco and Sainsbury’s obsession with Aldi fuelled Britain’s fruit and vegetable rationing crisis. Price war responsible for leaving UK vulnerable to shortages, farmers say.
Gousto has become embroiled in a bitter corporate governance row after excluding long-standing investors from a deeply discounted share sale. Sky News reports that the delivery group slashed its valuation from $1.7bn (£1.4bn) just over a year ago to less than $300m (£250m) last month when it secured £50m of new funding from some of its biggest shareholders.
Morrisons is planning to ditch at least 83 property maintenance suppliers, many based in its home city of Bradford, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk as it shifts to a single provider for repairs (The Guardian).
Greggs will reveal just how much the rising cost of ingredients is eating into profits and – crucially for Britain’s pastry lovers – whether the prices of its baked goods will have to rise too when it reports its annual results on Tuesday (The Mail on Sunday).
The new Brexit trading arrangements in Rishi Sunak’s revised Northern Ireland protocol could take more than two years to be fully implemented, government sources have confirmed (The Guardian).
WH Smith is opening high-end souvenir and stationery shops called Curi.o.city as it moves into the space left by the recent demise of Paperchase. The FTSE 250-listed retailer will open standalone shops under the new fascia in Gatwick airport’s south and north terminals on 16 March (The Times £).
Caffe Nero has posted an annual loss despite demand for its coffees and snacks returning to pre-pandemic levels (The Mail on Sunday).
Starbucks has put an end to speculation it could sell its British business with plans to invest £30m here and open 100 new coffee shops (The Telegraph).
UK’s drive-throughs step up a gear as posh brands take to the road (The Guardian). Bakery chain Gail’s is latest high-street chain hoping to serve its food through car windows.
Goldman’s Asset Management arm, Bain Capital, TPG and the Asda shareholder TDR Capital are among the suitors for the US-based Subway sandwich chain, according to Sky News.
Walker’s Shortbread, the 125 year-old Scottish biscuit maker and royal warrant holder, is exploring how to create a vegan version of its best-selling product in an effort to broaden its appeal (The Telegraph).
Toblerone will remove the image of the Matterhorn from its packaging after some of its chocolate production has been shifted outside Switzerland. Mondelez, the US owners of the pyramid-shaped chocolate, said it would remove the image in compliance with Swiss rules (The Times £).
The mountain, the nearly symmetrical pyramidal peak of which mirrors the shape of the almond-and-honey-laced chocolate bar, will be replaced with a more generic Alpine summit (The Guardian).
Wasabi is set to return to the expansion trail after securing new funding from Capdesia in partnership with Elliott Advisors for an estimated £10m (The Times £).
Business rates reforms are a ‘far cry’ from what the high street has been promised, the country’s biggest retailers have warned. Bosses from Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Currys slammed tweaks to the tax, which leaves physical stores still facing a high tax burden (Mail).
Thai police have brought criminal charges against a clothing factory that was used by Tesco to make F&F clothes, over its treatment of workers (The Guardian).
Marlboro maker Altria has swapped its minority stake in Juul Labs for intellectual property rights to some of the e-cigarette company’s heated tobacco prototypes, ending an investment which plummeted in value from $12.8bn just over four years ago following regulatory and legal setbacks (Financial Times £).
The Financial Times (£) carries an interview with Philip Morris’s CEO on quitting smoking and detoxifying the brand. Jacek Olczak says he is steering the tobacco group away from cigarettes towards ‘healthy solutions’.
The Financial Times (£) focuses on the opportunities for Irish whiskey makers see chance to catch up with “tweedy Scotch cousins”. The US is the biggest market for the ‘emerald spirit’ and new distillers are hoping to attract a younger set of customers.
Upland farmers lose hope for Brexit dividend, according to Financial Times (£). “Leaving the Common Agricultural Policy was meant to herald a new era.”
The activist investor targeting Wagamama’s owner The Restaurant Group wants the company to look at selling its Brunning & Price pubs and its airport concessions business in an attempt to cut its debt pile (The Sunday Times £).
The boss of Harrods said he was confident that the luxury department store would prosper in an economic downturn because “the rich get richer in a recession” (Financial Times £).
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