The environment gets a heavy dose of coverage this morning with the news that Iceland has pledged a crackdown on palm oil by removing it from its own-brand food by the end of the year to become the first British supermarket to do so, report The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. It said it had made an ethical decision to reformulate 130 food products so they no longer include the environmentally damaging ingredient. It said it had already replaced palm oil in half of its range. It has also rolled out 100 new lines that forego the ingredient that has threatened the survival of critically endangered species including the orangutan because of the impact on the rainforests. Richard Walker, Iceland’s managing director, said: “We don’t believe there is such a thing as guaranteed ‘sustainable’ palm oil available in the mass market, so we are giving consumers a choice to say no to palm for the first time.”

Waitrose plans to remove all disposable coffee cups from its shops by this autumn, report The Guardian and The Independent. Customers who are members of the myWaitrose loyalty scheme will still be able to get free tea or coffee but will instead be asked to use a refillable cup. It will trial the move by introducing the initiative into nine stores from 30 April. They will be Banbury, Oxfordshire; Billericay, Essex; Ipswich, Suffolk; Newmarket, Suffolk; Norwich, Norfolk; Sudbury, Suffolk; Wymondham, Norfolk; Upminster, east London; and Fitzroy Street, Cambridge. Waitrose said the move would save more than 52m cups annually across the UK. MyWaitrose members will not be able to claim their free hot drink in the chain’s 180 in-store cafes, to avoid customers without a reusable cup who cannot use the self-service machines putting increased pressure on the catering areas.

Staying with the environment, KPMG has taken the initiative in the fight against plastic waste by becoming one of the first leading companies to remove plastic cups from its UK offices, following a successful trial at its Manchester office Financial Times (£). It expects to recover the cost of providing reusable water bottles within 18 months of rolling out the scheme nationally. Staff who misplace their water bottles or choose not to use one will be able to “rent” a recyclable paper cup for around 50p. It also plans to remove plastic cups from its hot drinks machines and it has begun removing plastic cutlery form its regional offices.

On to more general issues, the British Retail Consortium-KPMG retail sales monitor shows food sales rose 4.2% on a like-for-like basis in the three months to end of March – up from 2.8 per cent in the previous three-month period. Financial Times (£). Like-for-like retail sales climbed 1.4% in March, up from 0.6 per cent growth in February. A Bloomberg poll had forecast a 0.3% contraction. Retail sales on a total basis climbed 2.3% last month year-on-year, up from 1,6% in February – the fastest pace of growth since last September. The Times (£) says the amount spent on food rose 5.3% in March [on a total basis] – the strongest three-month average since July 2009. The newspaper also points to separate data from Barclaycard which said spending in supermarkets climbed 5.1%, compared with general in-store spending which fell 1.9%. The Daily Telegraph notes that 34% of consumers in the Barclaycard poll, said the cold weather drove them to spend online instead of in-store. Overall expenditure online grew 11.7%, reports The Independent.

An HSBC survey of more than 6,000 UK companies operating in 25 markets around the world shows they are shrugging off worries about Brexit uncertainty The Times (£). The survey found 72% expect trade volumes to increase over the next year. This was only just below the global average of 77% and higher than the EU’s average of 71%. A report by the Institute of Directors found 63% of firms surveyed saw the EU as the largest source of revenue for their company of any global market The Times (£) and The Independent. Some 43% said the bloc had provided the greatest growth for their business since the start of 2016. Meanwhile, the UK deals market has experienced a very healthy start to the year as UK companies with presence in international markets remain particularly attractive to international investors, according to “big four” accounting firm EY The Daily Mail. Britain enjoyed the largest amount of takeover activity for a decade during the first quarter of 2018 as £85bn worth of deals involving UK companies were struck. They included GSK’s £9bn deal with to buy out Novartis’ 36.5% stake in its consumer healthcare joint venture.

US president Donald Trump did not start the trade war with China, says a commentator in The Times (£) – he has merely changed tactics. The writer says China has been “gaming” World Trade Organisation rules since joining in 2001. Past US governments preferred subtlety. This one likes to be direct, the newspaper says. Bloomberg reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated pledges to open sectors from banking to auto manufacturing in a speech that also warned against returning to a “Cold War mentality”.

The Times’ (£) market report notes that Credit Suisse and Jefferies both cut their price target for Associated British Food shares from £37 to £33 but the company still managed to jump to the top of the FTSE 100 rises based on confidence in its Primark discount clothing business – gaining more than 3% to 2,572p.

Researchers from Allegra Group expect coffee shops in Britain to outnumber pubs by 2030 The Times (£). The consultancy said 1,215 coffee shops opened last year to take the total to more than 24,000.

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