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Food price inflation expected in the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union has yet to filter through to the supermarket shelves, according to the latest exclusive figures from the Grocer Price Index.

The slump in the value of the pound was forecast to push up prices at the tills for consumers following the Brexit vote but an escalation in the ongoing price wars have kept deflation in the market.

The Grocer Price Index, compiled by Brand View from more than 60,000 supermarket SKUs, found that deflation edged back up in the month to 1 September as three of the big four sharpened their prices. The GPI found prices were 2.54% down year on year during the month, which represented a widening of deflation from the -2.36% in the month to 1 August.

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Morning update

Grocery tech group Eagle Eye Solutions (EYE) has appointed former deputy CEO of Tesco as its new chief executive as part of a raft of board changes. Tim Mason, who spent 30 years with Tesco in a number of senior roles, joined Eagle Eye in January as non-executive chairman. He takes over from Phill Blundell, who will now take up the deputy CEO role at the group to focus on the international growth strategy. Malcolm Wall, previously a non-executive director, becomes non-executive chairman and non-executive director Drew Thomson becomes remuneration committee chairman.

Tim Mason said: “When I joined Eagle Eye in January this year, I saw a company with a vision and proven technology to transform an industry. Since then I have been able to verify this opportunity and believe the time is right to accelerate our business development. I am delighted to help take the business into its next phase of accelerated growth and to capitalise on our first mover advantage and our successes so far in the UK and overseas.

“I would like to thank Phill Blundell for leading the business through its IPO and having delivered the progress achieved so far, and I look forward to working more closely with him and Steve Rothwell our founder as well as the rest of the great team at Eagle Eye.”

Eagle Eye validates and redeems digital promotions in real-time for the grocery, retail and hospitality industries. Its clients include Sainsbury’s, Asda, M&S, Greggs, One Stop and Molson Coors.

Brewer and pub group Greene King (GNK) has made a positive start to its new financial year thanks to the Euro 2016 football championship and better weather. The group said in a trading statement for the first 18 weeks of the year to 4 September, ahead of its AGM later today, that the pub division delivered like-for-like sales growth of 1.7%. In pub partners, LFL net income was up 4.5% after 16 weeks, while in brewing & brands, own-brewed volume declined 0.5% over the same period.

“As expected, uncertainty surrounding the UK’s future withdrawal from the European Union has translated into a softening of some economic indicators and a reduction in consumer confidence,” Greene Kind said.

“While the broader implications remain unclear, a number of recent industry surveys have flagged risks to leisure spend and we are alert to a potentially tougher trading environment ahead.”

The group has appointed Gordon Fryett to the board as a non-executive director with effect from 1 December 2016. He will also become a member of the audit, nomination and remuneration committees. Fryett has spent the majority of his career at Tesco, where his roles, prior to retirement in 2013, included playing a leading role in expansion in the UK and overseas, the development and management of the group’s property portfolio and CEO of Tesco Ireland.

Yesterday in the City

News that Amazon has expanded its Fresh service to the London suburbs with the addition of 62 new London postcodes weighed down Ocado (OCDO) shares yesterday morning. The stock slumped 5.2% to 308.2p before recovering some of the losses by early afternoon to sit at 1.7% down by close of play.

It was a fairly quiet day on the London Stock Exchange for food and drink with not much news flow to speak of, but the 100 leading shares nudged up 0.2% to finish at 6,858.7 points but gave up early gains made as the day wore on. However, the FTSE 100 outperformed European markets thanks to the European Central Bank holding rates steady and ECB president Mario Draghi said a possible extension of the quantitative easing programme had not been discussed.

Fruit importer Fyffes (FFY), best known for its bananas, increased its share price 1% to 135.9p after it paid CAD$59.1m (€41m) for its second Canadian mushroom business. The deal for All Seasons Mushrooms follows its acquisition of fellow Canadian mushroom business Highline Produce in April.

Riser yesterday included beleaguered stock Marks & Spencer (MKS), up 1.9% to 354.1p, Cranswick (CWK), up 1.4% to 2,329p, and Conviviality (CVR), up 2.1% to 218.5p.

Greggs (GRG), Unilever (ULVR) and Real Good Food (RGD) were among the day’s losers, falling 1.1% to 1,060p, 0.9% to 3,589p and 2.6% to 33.1p.

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