Greggs is struggling to keep its hot shelves stocked with vegan sausage rolls and bean and cheese melts amid lingering supply chain turmoil (The Telegraph). The story also flagged that McColl’s warned of food and alcohol shortages in the run up to Christmas.
The convenience shop chain McColl’s has warned that annual profits will be as much as £7m lower than expected as it struggles to source enough snacks, wine and beer (The Guardian).
’No turkey shortage at Christmas’ as overseas staff boost UK workforce, reads The Guardian headline. Ranjit Singh Boparan, the owner of turkey producer Bernard Matthews, said the first workers would arrive in the next few days as it prepared for the busy festive season.
Marks & Spencer has warned the British government that EU proposals to try to solve the dispute over Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trade rules threatened to increase rather than ease the administrative burden on goods imported into the region. Chairman Archie Norman said in a letter to UK Brexit minister Lord David Frost, seen by The Financial Times (£), that the offer from Brussels “could result in worsening friction and cost and a high level of ambiguity and scope for dispute”.
Pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates is mounting after inflation reached its highest level in almost a decade in October, threatening to tighten the squeeze on living standards in the UK and destabilise economic growth (The Financial Times £).
Soaring household energy bills and used car prices have propelled inflation to its highest level in a decade, heaping further pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates next month (The Telegraph).
The consumer prices index rose to 4.2% in October, higher than the 3.9% that had been expected by economists and up from 3.1% a month earlier, official figures from the Office for National Statistics showed (The Times £).
As inflation hits 10-year high, Covid-hit sectors are sounding the alarm on spiralling prices (The Guardian).
Iceland supermarket may be best known as a discount retailer of principally frozen food but it will be stocking the best mince pies this Christmas, according to the consumer group Which? (The Times £).
THG was under the microscope yet again yesterday, this time after it emerged that one of the banks that had handled its stock market listing had reported itself to the Financial Conduct Authority for a note suggesting that there were “irregularities in accounting” at the ecommerce group (The Times £).
British Land has posted its first interim profit in four years as the property group’s contrarian bet on retail parks seems to be paying off (The Times £).
The property company British Land, which owns offices and shopping centres including Sheffield’s Meadowhall, has unveiled multimillion pound plans to buy and convert car parks and empty retail centres into urban distribution hubs for online shopping and same-day grocery delivery services (The Guardian).
Elliott Advisors, the US activist investor, has revealed a 3% stake worth about $1bn in Europe’s largest supermarket group Ahold Delhaize in the latest example of private interest in grocery companies (The Financial Times £).
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