The entire board of Tesco has bought less than £350,000 of shares in the supermarket chain, and chief executive Dave Lewis has yet to buy any, despite being in charge for a year, writes the Guardian. The lack of share purchases by Lewis and Alan Stewart, the finance director, has “raised eyebrows among corporate governance pressure groups and shows that the Tesco executives have not been willing to back their turnaround plan by putting their own money into the retailer”. Tesco shares have fallen by a quarter since Lewis became chief executive last September. (The Guardian)
“Instead of dealmaking, Morrisons should stick to selling fruit and veg”, says the Telegraph. “[Dalton] Philips deserves some credit for attempting to expand into the right areas but it’s clear that when he did it was always too late, at huge costs, and ultimately without much success. [David] Potts is now reversing much of his predecessor’s work and going back to Morrisons’ core business of selling fruit and veg. Philips should’ve done the same because a dealmaker he most definitely was not.” (The Telegraph)
New Morrisons’ convenience stores owner Mike Greene is interviewed in the Mail on Sunday, insisting he can expand chain and slamming criticism of his one-time bankruptcy. Greene, who has appeared as a philanthropist in Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire programme, lost his home when his business failed 25 years ago. He condemned Britain’s attitude towards business failures. “‘I didn’t hurt anyone – but it hurt me severely, I lost my house. I delivered pizzas on the back of a moped with my wife, who is still with me 25 years later, and I bounced back. I wish in the UK we could celebrate people who do that.” (The Daily Mail)
The Guardian has asked if John Lewis has “lost its way”. Detailing customer complaints and a contribution from a disgruntled employee, the paper writes: “Guardian Money’s “Consumer champions” continue to receive a steady flow of complaints about John Lewis when we used to see none.” (The Guardian)
A recently launched investment firm has become the new frontrunner to buy Yo! Sushi in a cut-price deal worth less than £100m, according to Sky News. Mayfair Equity Partners has replaced Inflexion as the most likely buyer of the UK’s biggest Japanese restaurant group. Sources close to the process said that Inflexion had tried to chip away at the price it wanted to pay Quilvest, Yo! Sushi’s current owner, paving the way for Mayfair to step in. (Sky News)
British Home Stores, the high street retailer sold by Sir Philip Green for £1 six months ago, has secured a financial injection from London-based investment group Grovepoint Capital. The department store chain, which was bought by Retail Acquisitions in March, has struck a loan agreement with Grovepoint Credit, the firm’s specialist lending arm, for an amount thought to be about £65m secured against a small number of BHS’s stores. (The Financial Times £)
Environmental activists have released the home address of the boss of Marks & Spencer as part of a protest against the chain’s use of farms that support the badger cull. The campaign follows the discovery that all of M&S’s asparagus is sourced from Cobrey Farms, which is believed to be taking part in the controversial scheme to combat bovine tuberculosis by killing badgers. (The Times £)
No comments yet