Inflation – or rather deflation – is making headlines this morning. UK shop prices fell for the second consecutive month in September and registered the lowest rate in more than three years, reports The Financial Times, covering latest inflation figures from the BRC. Shop prices fell by an annual rate of 0.6 per cent in September, down from a 0.3 per cent contraction in the previous month and the lowest rate since August 2021.
Prices in UK shops are falling at the fastest rate since 2021 despite an increase in fresh food inflation as wet weather hit UK production, says The Guardian on the same data. The cost of olive oil and sugary snacks continues to be affected by the climate crisis.
Confidence among business leaders has drained away in advance of the autumn budget as they weigh up the prospect of higher taxes and stricter employment regulations, according to The Times. The Institute of Directors’ economic confidence index, which measures business leaders’ optimism about the economic climate, registered a decline from -12 in August to -38 in September. The index also recorded a slide in directors’ investment intentions, which have steadily fallen over the summer, from 36 in July to 23 in August, down to -6 in September.
The Mail also reports on the mood ahead of the budget, in which the new Labour Government will be tasked with reviving expectations for the British economy as sentiment begins to sour. Revised figures from the Office for National Statistics on Monday showed the British economy grew by less than expected in the second quarter of the year, following reports that business and consumer confidence weakened in September.
The Evening Standard reports on the findings of campaigners who placed tracking devices in bundles of soft plastic left in recycling points at Tesco and Sainsbury’s supermarkets, to see where they ended up. The Everyday Plastic campaign group and the Environmental Investigation Agency found that 70% of the bundles that reached a known destination were burned for energy, not recycled.
The Independent covers the same story, reporting that Tesco and Sainsbury’s have been accused of misleading customers over the findings.
Read the story on The Grocer.
A lawyer representing people affected by a “second Post Office IT scandal” has said they “must not” have “a long, hard battle ahead for exoneration and compensation”, reports Sky. A report found it is “a reasonable likelihood” that Capture software “created shortfalls” for sub-postmasters prior to the Horizon scandal.
Read the latest on the scandal in The Grocer.
John Lewis has seen an immediate response to the return of its Never Knowingly Undersold pledge with website and store sales picking up “aggressively”, according to The Standard. The department store group announced last month that it was bringing back the famous century old tagline that was axed by its former boss Pippa Wicks in 2022. As a result John Lewis has matched or dropped 30,000 prices since September 9.
Shares in AG Barr went a bit flat after last week’s interim results but they had just reached a five-year high, says the The Telegraph’s share-tracking Questor column. The trading update did not feature anything that was particularly incrementally positive, but there were no negative surprises either. Ultimately the results suggested the drinks maker had done well to adapt to, and come through, a period that has thrown up new regulations on sugar content, Covid, carbon dioxide shortages, input cost inflation and a lot more besides, and position itself for further growth in the process.
Tills at Asda were down yesterday morning after the supermarket was hit with a technical issue, according to The Mail, in a story citing posts on social media. Fuming customers have been left waiting without groceries as stores across the country were forced to open later than usual amid a problem with checkouts.
An ‘exclusive’ in The Mail looks ‘inside the cramped bedroom where McDonald’s slaves were forced to live in squalor by trafficking gang’. The story shows pictures of a bedroom in which a couple are believed by the newspaper to have kept vulnerable men living in squalor while taking their wages from McDonald’s.
Greggs has revealed its sales jumped by more than a 10th in recent weeks as the bakery chain continued its UK expansion and launched a pumpkin spice-inspired autumn menu, reports The Standard. The high street chain has opened more than 150 shops this year. Its total sales increased 10.6% over the 13 weeks to September 28, compared to the same period a year ago.
An opinion piece in The Guardian says that headlines would suggestion fatal reactions linked to food allergies in children are occurring more frequently, but questions whether they are really on the rise.
Another opinion column in The Times, looking at ‘Sober October’, says sales of non-alcoholic spirits, wines and beers are booming, mostly with health-conscious middle-class drinkers and millennials. Anne Shooter says statistics show that non-alcoholic beer in particular is surging in popularity, with the UK market said to be worth a whopping £809.7 million in 2023.
The BBC reports on energy bills rising for households from today, as a price cap is lifted. A household in England, Wales and Scotland using a typical amount of gas and electricity will now pay £1,717 a year, a 10% rise to the annual bill of £149.
A report in The Financial Times looks at Walmart recently ditching its entire 144.5mn share stake in JD.com, which had first been initiated through the sale of its Chinese online grocery store to JD.com in 2016, and later increased to over 10 per cent. The divestment happened through a huge block trade of JD.com’s US-listed American depositary receipts conducted by Morgan Stanley at $24.95 a share — an 11.5 per cent discount to the market price.
Finally, Australia’s grocery duopoly – Coles and Woolworths – has leapfrogged peers when it comes to profitability, marking a change since the country’s competition regulator found their profit margins were in line with major overseas supermarkets in 2008, suggests a report in The Guardian.
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