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Sainsbury’s has taken home the prestigious Grocer of the Year prize at the Grocer Gold Awards 2024.

The win is the first time the supermarket has secured the ulitmate award since 2007, beating last year’s winner, M&S, as well as Tesco, Lidl, Aldi and social enterprise The Company Shop.

The Grocer of the Year award topped an night of celebration for the food & drink industry at a ceremony held at the Royal Albert Hall, hosted by Myleene Klass and The Grocer editor-in-chief Adam Leyland.

Other big prizes given out on the night included Greggs CEO Roisin Currie becoming only the second woman to win The Grocer Cup, while supplier of the year was awarded to Procter & Gamble.

Pip & Nut founder Pip Murray was named Entrepreneur of the Year and premium mixer supplier Fever-Tree won Exporter of the year.

A full report of the evening and a list of all the winners is here.

Morning update

As the UK heads into the final day of the election campaign, the FTSE 100 inched up 0.4% to 8,150.75pts.

Early risers in fmcg included Just Eat Takeaway, up 2.4% to 956p, SSP Group, up 2.1% to 147.5p, Diageo, up 1.8% to 2,507.4p, and WH Smith, up 1.7% to 1,145p.

PayPoint, Compass Group and Hilton Food Group all started the day in the red, down 1.1% to 631p, 0.9% to 2,123p and 0.7% to 899.7p respectively.

Yesterday in the City

The FTSE 100 dipped 0.5% to 8,123.59pts.

Sainsbury’s sank 2.7% lower to 250.8p as the supermarket chain blamed wet weather for putting a dampener on its general merchandise division and Argos in the first quarter.

Elsewhere, Kitwave plunged 10.7% to 300p as the wholesaler reported weaker profitability in its first half on difficulties in hospitality.

Vaping manufacturer Supreme also fell back 5% to 170p despite big jumps in full-year sales and profits as investors worries about potential legislative changes in the UK.

Risers yesterday included Virgin Wines and Ocado, up 2.8% to 44.2p and 3.1% to 296.9p respectively.

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