Majestic Wine’s plans to invest more in expansion seem intentionally low-risk which has assuaged investors, writes Lombard in the Financial Times (£). News that the group was planning to double its investment in reaching new customers to £24m a year at a cost of £3m to earnings, led “glass half-empty” types to push its share price down 5%, but “glass half-full” types then bought in and the shares closed up 10%. Lombard says Majestic chief executive Rowan Gormley has learned not only from his own mistakes but the mistakes of others – realising expansion through store numbers cannot work.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Gormley said the firm had pulled back from launching more shops because its push to snare more customers online was delivering better returns. The Daily Mail says Gormley will “splash out” an extra £9m-£12m a year to lure wine lovers to Majestic and its sister company, Naked Wines.

Marks & Spencer (M&S) will halt operations in September at its Hardwick Grange distribution centre, in Cheshire, operated by XPO Logistics and DHL The Times (£). M&S said the decision to close Hardwick Grange, was part of a plan to create a “single tier” network that moves products from suppliers to stores more quickly and at lower cost.

Gordon Mowat, the chain’s logistics director said the closure was not a decision taken lightly and it was “not in any way a reflection on the hard work and dedication provided by the teams on site”, report The Guardian and Sky News.

The Financial Times (£) says the depot supplies clothing and home products to the retailer’s outlets in the North West and Scotland. Work will be moved to other centres, including one in Bradford. M&S will open a new distribution centre in Welham Green which will open in 2019. HGL will run the new facility.

Associated British Foods’ (ABF) chief executive, George Weston, would be interested in acquiring Horlicks, which GlaxoSmithKline has under “strategic review”, but thing the company would be outbid, he believes, reports the Financial Times (£). ABF’s sugar unit reported a 27% dip in operating profits to £90m in the 24 weeks to 3 March – hit by a fall in world sugar prices. It announced group pre-tax profits of £603m – down 30% cent on the same period the previous year when they were flattered by gains on disposals. Pre-tax profits of £628m were 1% higher when adjusted.

The Times (£) reports that James Grzinic, an analyst at Jefferies International, said that the group had delivered a “steady” first half “despite sugar and weather challenges”. The Daily Telegraph notes that Primark bucked the downward trend afflicting high streets with 3% growth in UK like-for-like sales, which boosted overall group revenues by 8% to £3.5bn. A comment piece in The Guardian asks if Primark’s owner is too big, and diverse, to fail. Possibly, it says.

Aldi has been crowned the best British supermarket for sustainable fish, according to the annual survey from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), report The Guardian and The Independent, with 79% of its wild seafood range MSC-certifed. Sainsbury’s comes second (76%), Lidl third (72%), Waitrose fourth (67%) and Tesco fifth (48%). Marks & Spencer performs poorly with 19% and Iceland and Morrisons are bottom of the league with less than 5% of their seafood range MSC-certified. However, The Guardian points out that Waitrose and M&S use third-party independent verification that is not reflected in the findings. The Independent says Asda has shown the biggest increase climbing from 17 products to 52, or 38%.

The Advertising Standards Authority has banned to Pret a Manger advertisements for making “misleading” claims that the sandwich chain uses natural ingredients, reports The Independent. Food and farming charity Sustain made the complaints.

Costa Coffee will become the first of the UK’s coffee chains to commit to recycling the same volume of takeaway cups used by its customers every year in an attempt to stop them ending up in landfill. It has promised to recycle up to 500m coffee cups a year by 2020 The Guardian.

Starbucks will shut more than 8,000 stores in the UK in the afternoon of 29 May to give training to nearly 175,000 employees about racial bias, report the Financial Times (£) and The Independent. It follows backlash over the arrest of two black men at one of its Philadelphia outlets.

Shopping centres owner Hammerson has pulled back from acquiring rival Intu, reports the BBC. The proposed £3.4bn takeover would have created the UK’s biggest property company, worth £21bn.

Britain will come bottom of the world’s leading economies next year, according to forecasts from the International Monetary Funds’ World Economic Outlook, reports The Times (£). The UK is forecast to grow 1.6% this year and 1.5% next.

Reckitt Benckiser plummeted to the bottom of the FTSE 100 after City analysts warned it had tried to compensate for its stalling sales growth by increasing prices faster than the competition The Daily Telegraph. The shares closed down 3.2% at 5,80.1p.

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