Kantar Worldpanel’s most recent grocery market share figures, Irn-Bru maker AG Barr’s sales falling flat and WH Smith ended its ‘rip-off’ hospital shop prices all feature prominently in today’s papers.
Fresh from the row over prices in airports, WH Smith has backed down following pressure from MPs and agreed to cut prices in its hospital shops (The Telegraph) (The Guardian). The retailer was accused of trying to profiteer at the expense of sick patients after an investigation by The Times found that cards and flowers could be almost twice as expensive in hospital shops run by WH Smith than in its nearest high street branches.
AG Barr’s woes are picked up by The Guardian, which goes with the headline ‘Irn-Bru sales fall flat as bad weather hurts AG Barr’. The paper said the soft drinks manufacturer blamed the wet summer for taking the fizz out of sales and warned its annual profit would be lower than expected. CEO Roger White took a swipe at sugar campaigners after the disappointing figures were posted on the London Stock Exchange. White said soft drinks had been ‘vilified’ by the war on sugar while sugary snack makers had not been targeted in the same way (The Telegraph).
Sainsbury’s was the only one of the big four in growth in the 12 weeks to 13 September, with sales up 0.9%, as the industry continued to struggle with falling prices and the strength of the discounters (The Telegraph). The Times added that the fortunes of Sainsbury’s offered a stark contrast to its long-time rival Tesco, whose market share hit its lowest level in a decade, according to the latest Kantar update. Britain’s No 3 grocery chain benefited from the expansion of its smaller Sainsbury’s Local branches in the period. The Guardian said that despite ploughing hundreds of millions of pounds into cutting prices Tesco, Asda and Morrisons were the worst performing food retailers in Britain in the past three months.
The Financial Times leads its story on figures from Nielsen, which will now update the market on the same day as Kantar. The Nielsen data showed that almost half of UK households buying groceries are visiting Aldi or Lidl every month. The strategy to open stores in more upmarket areas and appeal to wealthier shoppers with premium products is paying off for the German pair.
Finally, if the takeover approach of AB InBev for SABMiller is successful, it would present a “valuable opportunity” for US-Canadian group Molson Coors, which has been the minority partner in the MillerCoors joint venture with SAB, The FT said in its latest commentary on the potential deal.
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