Tesco gets inevitable coverage about its “comeback” in defiance of the wider gloom on high streets and three years after the accounting scandal which plunged it into crisis, Financial Times (£). The shares closed up 7% in reaction to its annual results statement which said it had attracted 260,000 more customers over the past year and expected to make £2.5bn extra revenue “over the medium term” from the £3.7bn booker takeover.

The newspaper’s Lex column describes Tesco as “dancing in the aisles”, but chief executive Dave Lewis, whose fan club is growing, must prove sceptics of the Booker deal wrong if he is to secure his legacy. The writer notes that chief executives, like politicians, are more likely to be remembered for their mistakes than their achievements.

The Times (£) leads on the almost eightfold increase in pre-tax profit from £145m to £1.3bn. Charles Wilson, former boss of Booker who now runs Tesco’s UK and Ireland operation, joked that he had experience with “demanding bosses” – a reference to when he was Sir Stuart Rose’s right-hand man at Marks & Spencer.

The Daily Telegraph screams: “Recovery at Tesco finally bags City approval”. The Daily Mail remarks on speculation that “Drastic Dave” could be off to Unilever as the Marmite owner’s boss Paul Polman prepares to step down by the end of the year. Lewis spent 27 years at Unilever before he joined Tesco in 2014. Lewis dismissed the speculation, saying there was more to do at Tesco.

The Independent says “Tesco roars but will the beast now get its claws into the discounters”, noting that it offered no update on “the hottest rumour in retail” – the potential launch of a competitor to Lidl and Aldi.

Carrefour announced after the market closed that its sales growth slowed in the first quarter to €20.78bn (£18.11bn) – slightly below the median analyst estimates in a Reuters poll of €20.87bn Financial Times (£). This amounts to 0.4% quarterly growth on a like-for-like basis, excluding fuel and calendar effects, down from 1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2017. The world’s second-largest retailer by revenue has started to remove 273 former DIA discounters from its estate.

An unidentified top-20 investor in Hammerson says the shopping centre owner should “walk away” from a proposed merger with rival Intu and “properly engage” in talks with spurned French suitor Klépierre, reports The Times (£). Klépierre has until Monday to make a firm offer or retreat. The Daily Telegraph says Hammerson received a revised bid of 635p a share from Klépierre, which it unanimously rejected. The Daily Mail says Hammerson’s rejection of the offer sparked fears of a hostile raid.

Brussels will unveil a package of reforms today in a crackdown on powerful food buyers that abuse their position, reports the Financial Times (£). The measures will prohibit “unfair” contract terms and give individual nations the power to police the conduct of big buyers. One of the reasons the European Commission thinks more action from Brussels is justified is because some member states have gone further at national level – citing the “wonderful example” of the UK’s groceries code adjudicator.

Also emanating from Brussels, The European Union has announced a directive banning food and drink multinationals from selling “dual food” – inferior versions of well-known brands to customers in eastern Europe, reports The Guardian. The newspaper says Coca-Cola, Pepsi, HiPP baby food, Birds Eye, Lidl and Spar have denied accusations of selling lower quality goods in the east bearing identical branding to products sold in western Europe. Persil and Ariel have been accused of selling a less effective washing product formula in eastern Europe, a claim they also refute.

The Committees of Advertising Practice has announced a crackdown to stop companies from making misleading delivery claims. Shops will be banned from advertising free “UK delivery” and then add on charges for difficult to reach areas of the country at the end of the online shopping process, says The Daily Telegraph. Those who continue to make misleading claims from June this year will be reported to trading standards and could be issued with fines. Advertising regulators have also launched an investigation into Amazon Prime’s “next day delivery” claims last year.

Online retailer Shop Direct, owner of Littlewoods and Very, said it would close three warehouses in Greater Manchester jeopardising up to 2,000 jobs The Times (£). Shopworkers union Usdaw, said staff were feeling “deeply shocked, devastated and let down”. Henry Birch, boss of Rank Group, joins the company later this year as chief executive, says The Daily Telegraph.

Fresh from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) comes the news that the manufacturing sector shrank in February, by 0.2%, for the first time in almost a year The Times (£). The ONS also revised down its January figure to show that output then had stagnated – led by a 3.9% dip in the manufacture of machinery and equipment, the first since June 2017. The trade deficit in the three months to February widened by £400 to reach £6.4bn.

UK supermarkets have started to stock the first consignments of British-grown asparagus with Marks & Spencer first off the block, reports The Guardian, followed by Waitrose. Sainsbury’s is likely to stock small quantities from this weekend. The mainstream crop is likely to suffer a two-week delay arising from the “Beast from the East”.

AB InBev says it has developed a greener way to generate gas bubbles needed for malting grains before fermentation with the need to boil the water and hopes, thereby reducing its CO2 emissions by 5% The Guardian.

Cannabis could soon become a bigger sector than fizzy drinks and it has already started putting pressure on alcohol sales, says The Independent. The legal weed industry could generate $75bn (£53bn) in sales by 2030 if it is made legal nationwide in the US by that year, according to a new note from the investment bank Cowen.

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