Tesco and Sainsbury’s, Britain’s two biggest supermarkets, are making an estimated £300m a year from selling information about their customers’ shopping habits and choices to consumer giants and TV companies. (The Times £)
Asda is facing walkouts from lorry drivers over Christmas in a fresh blow to the supermarket’s billionaire owners, the Issa brothers. Around 80 lorry drivers at the retail giant’s operations hub in Rochdale are plotting strike action over the festive break. Asda plans to use its own drivers on days the strikes take place to limit disruption. (The Telegraph £)
A British-based buyout firm and an Italian food manufacturer are vying for control of Princes Foods, one of Britain’s biggest tinned produce brands. According to Sky News Epiris and Newlat are the two remaining bidders in the sale of Princes, which has been on the auction block for months. The Grocer wrote of the interest of Epiris and Newlat in September. (Sky News)
UK online supermarket Ocado is ramping up the use of robotic arms to pick and pack groceries for shoppers at far faster speeds. The upmarket grocer’s new generation of machines, which was first unveiled in 2022, can pick individual products directly from storage boxes. (The Financial Times £)
Waitrose’s crown as middle England’s favourite supermarket might have slipped in the UK, but it claims to be winning over shoppers in the Caribbean, Malaysia and the Middle East. (The Times £)
Whisky drove a 13% rise in UK drinks exports to £9.4bn in the past year as young professionals reached for “status” brands. (The Times £)
Italian coffee giant Lavazza has just struck a deal with Sainsbury’s and Waitrose to bring Cuban coffee to the UK market for the first time. It will be available under the Tierra label. (The Daily Mail)
Sainsbury’s shares were dearer than they have been for almost two years after a push from an American investment bank. Analysts at Goldman Sachs tipped Britain’s second-biggest supermarket to clients as they pointed to Sainsbury’s “strongly improving” position in the market (The Times £). Shares in Sainsbury’s closed in on a two-year high just days after industry data revealed it has won back shoppers amid a price battle with cheaper rivals (The Daily Mail).
Vimto may feel slightly anachronistic in the mature, newly health-focused UK beverage market, but there is growing thirst for Nichols’s low-asset packaged business in emerging markets. With the shares changing hands at a price-to-earnings ratio of 16, it’s not in bargain basement territory, but the overseas growth opportunities look frothy. (The Times £)
Human rights groups are investigating a death at a Del Monte pineapple farm in Kenya after a man’s body was found in a dam there last month. (The Guardian)
Consumers will pay more for less this Christmas, economists have warned. This year the average UK household will shell out £550 on festive goods and services, including food, alcohol, toys, games and clothing, according to data from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) – up £70 from last year. (The Guardian)
Unilever faces break-up battle after ‘virtue signalling’ retreat. Hein Schumacher’s change of tone and charm offensive masks corporate uncertainty. (The Telegraph £)
The world must ramp up the production of meat to address widespread hunger and nutrient deficiencies faced by people in developing countries, the UN said, even as it called on those in richer nations to eat less animal protein. (The Financial Times £)
The owner of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society issued a profit warning on Friday after a slowdown in demand for whisky in China. (The Times £)
A punt on Pernod Ricard, the French spirits group, has left one of Britain’s most popular investment trusts nursing a hangover. (The Times £)
The revolving door at John Lewis has taken another turn with the latest departure of a senior director – just seven months after joining the partnership’s board. Retail expert Nicky Dulieu was head of the influential audit and risk committee at the department store group. (The Daily Mail)
The veteran restaurateur David Page, who previously ran Pizza Express and Clapham House, the Gourmet Burger Kitchen operator, has set up 704 Restaurants, a new investment vehicle that will target European businesses of between one and 20 sites. (The Times £)
A student died after suffering an allergic reaction to sesame seed oil in a mushroom risotto she ate at a family dinner in a Dorset pub, an inquest has heard. (The Guardian)
A little over a year ago it looked like the Rowan Glen yoghurt factory near Palnure had closed for good. A management buyout - backed by South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) - has been able to turn that story around. (The BBC)
Wave of new firms looking to take seaweed mainstream. The Scottish businessman Pete Higgins believes the tide is turning for the British seaweed market as a once “whimsical cottage industry” gets a commercial reality check. (The Times £)
Starbucks wants to resume contract talks with the recently formed labour union that represents thousands of the coffee chain’s US baristas, the company said on Friday, aiming to break what it called a months-long “impasse”. (The Financial Times £)
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