The boss of one of the UK’s biggest food firms is calling for higher taxes on salty, fatty and sugary foods. Food producers had not “shown enough appetite to change”, said James Mayer, who runs Danone in the UK and Irish Republic. (BBC)

Waitrose has cut the price of more than 200 products as part of a £100m investment plan to lower customer bills (Sky News). Waitrose has cut the price of bread, beef mince, chicken and other kitchen staples as the supermarket battles to recover from an IT meltdown that caused widespread empty shelves (Telegraph £).

Big food manufacturers in France have pledged to lower prices on hundreds of products next month after pressure from the government (The Guardian). French finance minister Bruno Le Maire has said that 75 food producers have pledged to lower prices by July following weeks of pressure from the government for companies to stabilise food prices (The Financial Times £)

The discount retailer Wilko has drafted in property advisers ahead of crunch talks with landlords about slashing rents across its store estate. (Sky News)

Two shareholder advisory groups have urged investors to vote against the re-election of Iain McDonald to the board of ecommerce group THG over concerns relating to his independence. (Financial Times £)

Greggs says it wants to open new stores in Cornwall and the South West of England - in a move that could put the bakery chain toe-to-toe with traditional Cornish pasty makers (Sky News). The Newcastle-based baker has not been cowed and its fourth shop in the county opens in Saltash on Saturday. It is Greggs’ second attempt to win over the town, after a franchise store that opened in 2018 closed within a year (The Guardian).

Two of Britain’s biggest retailers have seen the value of their pension plans plunge as the fall-out from last autumn’s bond market rout spreads. Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer are among thousands of companies whose defined benefit schemes – which pay guaranteed pensions based on workers’ salaries – placed bets on interest rates staying low. (The Daily Mail)

The former boss of British American Tobacco is to receive a lump-sum £1.5m pension payment as part of his exit from the cigarette company. (The Times £)

Restrictions should be put on bottled water advertising and a 10p tax should be added to shrink-wrapped packs to curb the UK’s 10m bottle-a-day habit, according to campaigners hoping to tackle the plastic pollution crisis. (The Guardian)

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, writes in The Guardian that far from helping customers by absorbing soaring food costs, supermarket chiefs and shareholders are enjoying a bonanza. (The Guardian)

Pet shop chain Jollyes achieved record revenues last year after sales soared from £87m to £115.3m. (Daily Mail)

In contrast to the many producers shouting about their home-made food with locally sourced ingredients grown in their back garden, Greencore is the sandwich maker unashamed of its heft. (The Times £)

Chilly’s Bottles doubles down in the battle against single-use plastics. From a team of 15 they have invested and today employ 60 people. Instead of reining in spending on advertising they backed the Chilly’s brand, buying TV advertising and space on billboards and striking new partnerships with the likes of Glastonbury. That investment is starting to pay dividends. An operating loss of £1.2m in 2022 will be reversed in the trading year to this July. (The Times £)

Diageo’s Ivan Menezes was a skilled operator as well as a humble leader, writes Jim Armitage in The Sunday Times. (The Times £)

The more something costs, the less of it people buy. That holds true for most consumer goods — and is the reason why inflation is such a bugbear for the likes of Nestlé and Danone. But parents will skimp on most things before they trade down on baby food. That makes infant nutrition a good place to be when price hikes bite. (Financial Times £)

Wine producers in the UK have benefited from longer, warmer growing seasons. Drinkers now have a keener thirst for domestic wines, a number of which have won international awards. For those who fancy a sparkling wine from Kent, some will wonder about the best way of investing in English wine. (Financial Times £)

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