The price row between Tesco and Unilever is big news today across all the papers. Read The Grocer story here.

The Financial Times writes that the plummeting pound is threatening UK households’ supplies of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Marmite spread, as Tesco pulled dozens of products from sale online in a row over who should bear the cost of the weakening currency. Shares in both Tesco and Unilever are falling faster than the wider market in early trading on Thursday, The FT notes.

Tesco is locked in a standoff with Unilever after the company demanded price rises of 10% across its entire range, blaming the falling value of the pound (The Telegraph). The Guardian says it is understood that Unilever has halted deliveries to Tesco after a dispute over price, and several famous brands are currently unavailable from the supermarket chain’s website. The paper adds in a separate article that brand power “favours Unilever in row over UK-produced Marmite”. Lord Haskins, former chair of Northern Foods, told BBC Newsnight last night that Tesco will be forced to take the hit on Marmite because consumers want the product.

The Times’ Alistair Osbourne takes aim at Tesco for its plans to close the defined pension scheme. “Every little helps. Or so Tesco says. So, it’s a bit of a shame it’s just a load of marketing baloney. Ask a question no one at the supermarket chain wants to answer and they duck it for days, providing pretty much no help whatsoever. True, in their defence, it’s not the world’s most exciting question: how much will Tesco gain in operating profits this year from closing its defined benefit pension scheme? And maybe the retailer’s boss, Dave Lewis, has better things to do than answer it, such as picking a fight with his old company, Unilever, over the increased prices for supplying Knorr products, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Marmite spread.”

Elsewhere, Premier Foods difficult second quarter also comes under the media glare. Premier blamed the sales slump on a particularly hot September, when Britons opted for salads, ice creams and cold drinks rather than its soups, sauces and seasonings (The Times). The decline pushed its overall sales down by 1.8% and the group’s first-half trading profit is now “expected to be slightly lower than the prior year”. The FT writes that “Premier Foods shares hit as appetite for gravy melts under September sun”. CEO Gavin Darby said profit expectations for the full year were unchanged because costs were being managed carefully (The Guardian). Ashley Armstrong in The Telegraph looked at weather as an excuse for companies’ sales woes. “Yes, it might have been the hottest September in 105 years, but a 5.4pc slide in quarterly sales surely signals more than Brits shunning Yorkshire puddings for barbecued meats.” Alistair Osbourne in The Times also has some harsh words for Darby. “Naughty Gavin Darby. When the Premier Foods boss ingeniously lost a 65p-a-share approach from McCormick, the US predator, in April, he promised his investors a gravy train.”

British businesses should stop hiding and instead travel the world promoting “Brand Britain” as “cheerleaders of open markets”, according to former Sainsbury’s boss Justin King (The Telegraph).

Diageo is to launch its first cider brand in Kenya to take advantage of a burgeoning market of affluent younger consumers who are drinking more amid otherwise slowing global alcohol consumption, says The FT.

Topics