Aldi has pledged to keep the “contract” with its customers by cutting prices below Tesco’s budget brand Jack’s, as sales hit an all-time high of £10bn in the UK and Ireland (Telegraph). The German discounter increased its customers by 1.1 million, helping sales to rise 16pc to a record £10.2bn for the year to December 2017. Operating profits climbed 29pc to £266m. Aldi confirmed on Monday that it planned to open 130 stores in the UK over the next two years, creating 5,000 jobs and taking it closer to its target of 1,000 stores by 2022 (The Guardian). Aldi said that it was growing more than five times faster than the overall grocery market (The Times £, Daily Mail).
Unilever’s plan to scrap its Anglo-Dutch structure is facing further opposition after Schroders joined the list of investors opposing the move (Telegraph). Schroders, a top 30 shareholder, said Unilever’s bid to ditch the dual listing in favour of a single headquarters in Rotterdam, Holland, was not right for investors. Unilever has been met with a chorus of dissenting voices despite launching a charm offensive that urged shareholders to back its plan. Jessica Ground, global head of stewardship at Schroders, said that it “understood the company’s desire for simplification, but we do not believe this is the right decision for Unilever plc shareholders” (The Times £).
Tesco Bank has been fined £16.4 million after a cyberattack in 2016 left its customers vulnerable to fraud (The Times £). The Financial Conduct Authority said yesterday that the incident could have been avoided and that the penalty showed that it had “no tolerance” for banks that did not properly protect customers (Sky News).
The firm behind iconic bread brand Hovis is culling 100 jobs and cutting ties with three of its flour mills as it posts hefty full-year losses (Daily Mail). Bosses at Hovis Ltd said 71 jobs will go as it shuts down its ‘significantly loss making’ mill in Southampton at the end of this year.
Italian coffee company Lavazza has bought Mars Drinks, including Flavia and Klix vending systems, for an enterprise value of $650m (Financial Times £). The deal, which still needs regulatory approval, is the latest acquisition in the rapidly consolidating global coffee market dominated by Switzerland’s Nestlé and Luxembourg-based JAB Holdings.
Health food chain Planet Organic has been sold to Scottish private equity firm Inverleith in a deal thought to be worth around £15m (Telegraph). The sale will result in a payout for its founder Renée Elliott, who is reducing her holding in the business she founded in 1991 to promote natural wholesome foods.
Deliveroo’s sales have more than doubled to £277m, but losses at the takeaway delivery service also increased to nearly £185m (The Guardian). The privately owned company said losses went up by 43% after it invested £106m more last year than in 2016 in projects including a new head office in Cannon Street, central London, and opening Editions pop-up kitchens (The Times £, Daily Mail).
J Sainsbury is planning to take on Boots, Superdrug and Debenhams by launching a revamped beauty range that will be sold “department store-style”, with dedicated beauty assistants (The Times £). Sainsbury’s said that its new range would double in size, with up to 3,000 items, including more than 1,500 new products from brands such as Revlon, Mane ‘n Tail and Burt’s Bees.
About 120,000 shareholders in Campbell Soup are being wooed by Daniel Loeb’s activist hedge fund, which claimed they could be in line for a premium of almost 60 per cent if the US food group yielded to a takeover (Financial Times £). Third Point on Monday fired the starting gun on its campaign to replace all of Campbell’s directors, arguing they had “overseen a series of strategic and operational blunders that have placed the company in a precarious situation”.
Philip Morris International has filed a lawsuit against the South Korean government, demanding the disclosure of detailed information on Seoul’s recent test results of harmful substances found in electronic cigarettes (Financial Times £).
Policymakers should embrace lower-risk alternatives to traditional cigarettes to promote public health, with hostility to the products akin to campaigns against condoms, according to the maker of Marlboro (Financial Times £). André Calantzopoulos, chief executive of Philip Morris International, the world’s biggest tobacco company by market capitalisation, said the debate about the devices had parallels with calls for abstinence to prevent the spread of HIV.
Sports Direct, which is controlled by the tycoon Mike Ashley, has dismissed the former directors and senior management of House of Fraser, less than two months after buying the department store group from its administrators (The Guardian).
No comments yet