In an interesting interview with the Daily Mail Waitrose executive director James Bailey traces his love for the upmarket retailer back to his mum taking him to the Eastbourne branch as a six-year-old and finding exotic products such as “chicken kiev, hummus and taramasalata”. The article links this to his continued search for new and inspiring food products with which he hopes to keep bring that little bit of a difference for his customers. Baley goes on to share his thoughts on the arrival of Jason Tarry as executive chairman at parent company the John Lewis Partnership as well discussing how this is set to be Waitrose’s most profitable year for a decade.
From upmarket to discount and The Telegraph puts Home Bargains in the spotlight. The piece looks at the variety discounts plans to scale up from around 600 to between 800 and 1,000 stores. It visits a recently opened store in Plymouth amid suggestions that much of this expansion will be based in the south of England. There is no contribution from the business’ notoriously media shy founder Tom Morris but as well as detailing the history of Home Bargains there is plenty of room for reviewing his estimated £6.7bn family fortune and detailing some of the trappings of that wealth including a £38m private jet and a superyacht.
Much of this morning’s business press focuses on the major international investment summit and the lobbying and advice flying in from all quarters to Sir Keir Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves on what is needed to unlock growth in the UK. At the same time however The Times reports on warnings from Cornwall Insights that is predicting that businesses will remain impacted by high energy bills for at least another two years. It said gas market volatility and increased costs associated with balancing and upgrading the energy grid will push bills for many businesses including large retail and leisure operators up by an average £200,000 per premises to just over £550,000 a year by 2026.
Another sector seeing plenty of media attention recently is farming and this morning the FT reports that British farmers are scaling back on food production in favour of alternatives such as rewilding or growing crops for biofuels. The paper visited NFU president Tom Bradshaw on his farm in Essex where he warned that major cuts to subsidies for food and consecutive poor harvests are forcing the sector to seek less risky alternatives. Ahead of the budget he is calling for ministers to urgently distribute grants from a planned food recovery fund for the worst-hit farms. The article points out that record rainfall this year has led to the second worst harvest in England since records began.
Finally in a bizarre tale, The Guardian is reporting how small businesses in Essex and Suffolk have been warned against trying to increase supply over concerns around water usage. The businesses including small breweries and distilleries have received letters from their water company telling them to keep a lid on water usage for the next 10 years. The letter from Essex and Suffolk Water stated: “You should not plan to increase your mains water use if it is for non-domestic purposes. Without the moratorium we will not have sufficient water to meet all existing and new mains water demand until we have developed the new water supplies.”
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