Media Bites

Delivery drivers raking in £250-a-day as shortage in the run up to Christmas puts brakes on Ocado, writes The Daily Mail. Online supermarket Ocado has had to shell out more money on delivery drivers after a shortage in the run-up to Christmas pushed up demand and wages. (The Daily Mail)

Ocado has been forced to increase pay for its delivery drivers after a shortage of recruits hit sales at the online grocer (The Guardian). Ocado has said it was held back by a shortage of drivers after its growth cooled slightly towards the end of this year (The Telegraph). Ocado has blamed a lack of delivery drivers for a slowdown in sales as the popularity of online shopping grows further (The Times £).

An audit by Tesco found no widespread evidence that staff felt compromised by accounting practices at the retailer, a court heard yesterday. The findings of the internal report were read out in the closing arguments of a barrister defending Carl Rogberg, a former finance director of Tesco and one of three former executives accused of fraud and false accounting. (The Times £)

Wall Street banks including Bank of America and Citigroup are facing potential losses of more than €1bn on loans made to the billionaire backer of Steinhoff International (The Financial Times £). Christo Wiese has resigned as chairman of the supervisory board of Steinhoff International, the South Africa-based retail conglomerate that is fighting for its survival (The Financial Times £).

The Scottish government’s 50p minimum unit price for alcohol, which comes into force on 1 May 2018, will have a dramatic impact on prices, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. (The Guardian)

Energy drinks should be banned from sale to young people under the age of 16, health experts have warned in light of a study showing they have unacceptably high levels of sugar and caffeine. The campaigning group Action on Sugar, whose researchers carried out the study on sugar, caffeine and carbohydrate content of energy drinks,, is calling for a ban on sales to under-16s. (The Guardian)

Richard Baugh’s family have been raising pigs for three generations at Woodside Farm in rural Nottinghamshire. But Mr Baugh says he’s been forced to change the name of his business after Tesco rebranded its own label pork products as “Woodside Farms”. He’s now threatening legal action if the supermarket giant doesn’t drop its new branding. (The BBC)

Beer lovers have long mocked Budweiser for its bland taste but it seems the ‘King of Beers’ is growing in popularity in the UK. The beer is so favoured by British shoppers that it is the fastest-growing product of 2017, according to research giant Nielsen. (The Telegraph)

Black Friday discounts encouraged British consumers to increase their spending on the high street and online in November, despite the most protracted squeeze on household income in memory. (The Guardian)

PZ Cussons, the soap and shampoo maker, said that dampened consumer spending in Europe and “challenging” trading in its key Nigerian business had knocked back its half-year profits by 10 per cent compared with a year ago. (The Times £)

US retailer Costco saw its revenue rise 13.3 per cent year-on-year in the most recent quarter as rising membership fees and the addition of the busy Black Friday shopping day helped boost its bottom line. (The Financial Times £)

China Huishan Dairy, the troubled company whose shares dove 85 per cent in March, has appointed provisional liquidators after beginning preparations for liquidation last month. (The Financial Times £)

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