The future of Patisserie Valerie is in doubt after it admitted that a £40m alleged fraud was more extensive than had been thought and said that it had hired KPMG, the accounting group, to carry out a “review of all options” (The Times £). Patisserie Valerie lurched back towards the brink after hiring KPMG to prepare the business for “all options”, including collapsing into an insolvency (The Telegraph).

The owner of the Patisserie Valerie café chain will review “all options available” for the business after revealing that problems with its accounts were even worse than previously thought (The Financial Times £). Patisserie Valerie, the cafe chain which came within hours of financial collapse in October after discovering a multimillion-pound gap in its accounts, has uncovered “thousands of false entries into the company’s ledgers” (The Guardian). The owner of stricken cafe chain Patisserie Valerie has admitted its accounting scandal is worse than previously thought (The Daily Mail). The crisis-hit owner of Patisserie Valerie is examining “options” for the business, warning the scale of alleged fraud in its accounts may be much worse than initially feared (Sky News).

The chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser plans to leave by the end of this year in a move that could lead to a break-up of the giant consumer goods group (The Times £). Rakesh Kapoor is to step down by the end of this year as chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser after two years of problems, including a cyber attack and manufacturing disruption, marred previously strong results (The Financial Times £). The boss of Reckitt Benckiser could trouser £30m after leaving – on top of the £86m he was paid while in charge (The Daily Mail)

Alistair Osborne in The Times (£) writes: “No question Mr Kapoor has done a decent job. But, as [Jefferies analyst] Martin Deboo put it, his exit “compounds our sense of unease around RB — a feeling that the success model is finding its limits”. A break-up could also be trickier than it looks. Still, with Mr Kapoor off, at least that’ll be his successor’s problem.”

The FT’s Lex column writes: “Mr Kapoor has done an impressive job. Replacing him will be tough. Maintaining the sharp, aggressive Reckitt culture will be harder still… Are margins at a peak? Some suggest selling parts of the group, such as Hygiene Home, to plump up the valuation cushion again. That would be tricky.” (The Financial Times £)

Alex Brummer in The Mail writes: “Reckitt has let it be known that it is looking inside as well as externally for Kapoor’s replacement. Often the best companies do well with home-grown succession. In Reckitt’s case an outsider, who is less captive of a stale, inward-looking culture, might be the jolt needed. “ (The Daily Mail)

The world’s leading consumer goods companies are experiencing a changing of the guard as pressure from activist investors mounts and shopping habits evolve in the smartphone era. In the past six months alone, chief executives have departed at Unilever, PepsiCo, British American Tobacco, and Beiersdorf, building on earlier shake-ups at Nestlé, Mondelez International and Campbell Soup. (The Financial Times £)

Tesco is renting refrigerated containers for the remainder of the year to increase the amount of frozen food it can store and mitigate some of the potential disruption from a disorderly Brexit. (The Financial Times £)

The UK inflation rate fell to 2.1% in December, from 2.3% the previous month, according to the Office for National Statistics. The Consumer Prices Index figure was the lowest in nearly two years, pushed down by petrol price falls. (The BBC)

Britons are likely to spend a record £25bn ordering goods on their phones this year as the surge in mobile spending shows no sign of easing up (The Times £). Smartphones have for the first time overtaken shopping centres as a popular way to shop, figures show (The Telegraph).

Marks & Spencer is set to introduce plastic-free aisles after testing a new greengrocer shopping concept in its Tolworth store (The Telegraph). Marks & Spencer is to start selling more than 90 lines of loose fruit and vegetables free of all plastic packaging, in a trial that will put the traditional greengrocer back on the shop floor and revive the use of paper bags (The Guardian). Marks & Spencer is trialling plastic-free produce at one of its stores as it tries to reduce its reliance on packaging (Sky News)

A health food brownie containing dates and brown rice bran has been deemed a cake – and so free from VAT charges – after a judge taste-tested the product alongside Mr Kipling’s French fancies and Tunnock’s teacakes. (The Guardian)

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