All ears will be on the language Whitbread chief executive Alison Brittain uses tomorrow when she announces the Costa Coffee owners’ full-year results in light of activist investors Sachem Head’s and Elliott Capital Advisors’ pressure for a split, says Tempus in The Times (£). Brittain will find it difficult to trot out the same lines even if she still believes the time is not right to spin off Costa as a separately listed company, it says.

A comment piece in The Daily Mail says as the vultures circle, Whitbread should remember what happened to Cadbury Schweppes when corporate raider Ronald Perelman targeted the confectionery-to-soft drinks giant. His first goal was to release value from Schweppes by splitting it out of Cadbury and floating it in New York. Then, unencumbered by its soft drinks arm, Cadbury became a sitting duck. Kraft came along in 2010 and one of Britain’s most emblematic food companies was lost in a bitterly fought takeover, the writer says.

A Bloomberg commentary says Costa may have been worth £3.5bn-£4bn two years ago, according to Simon French at Cenkos Securities, but now, the value would be closer to £2-2.5bn.

The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has given its blessing to The Co-operative Group’s £143m acquisition of Nisa, the Financial Times (£). The CMA said it would release more details on its decision soon. The Daily Telegraph says the deal will now seek final approval at a court hearing on 4 May. The Independent notes that the Co-op will almost double the number of stores it supplies after it completes the transaction. The Nisa brand will be retained, it says.

Charges related to a previously-announced restructuring programme as well as the rising cost of inputs weighed down first-quarter earnings at Kimberly-Clark the Financial Times (£). Total sales climbed 5% year-on-year to $4.7bn (£3.4bn) – about $100m higher than forecast. Net income fell to $93m from $563m a year earlier.

Chapel Down has surpassed its goal of selling 10,000 bottles of sparkling wine in the US “with ease”, reports The Daily Telegraph. Frazer Thompson, chief executive, said the company’s recent entry into the US wine market had helped boost annual sales by a fifth to more than £8.1m in the year to the end of December. Pre-tax profit fell two-thirds to £253,115 on group sales up 15% to £11.8m. The Daily Mail notes that the Kent-based company plans to invest further in its gin, vodka and beer brands as well as buy rivals if opportunities arise.

Walmart is closing 63 Sam’s stores in the US as the rise of online shopping continues to take its toll on bricks-and-mortar retail, reports the Financial Times (£). Credit Suisse analysts said 2018 looked to be another peak year for store closures on a square-footage basis.

Charges related to a previously-announced restructuring programme as well as the rising cost of inputs weighed down first-quarter earnings at Kimberly-Clark the Financial Times (£). Total sales climbed 5% year-on-year to $4.7bn (£3.4bn) – about $100m higher than forecast. Net income fell to $93m from $563m a year earlier.

American activist investor Elliott Capital Advisors, which owns a small slug of Whitbread, increased the stake of 1.5% it took in Hammerson on Friday to 1.73% yesterday The Times (£). The stake comes after the shopping centre owner pulled out of a plan to merge with Intu Properties in a £3.4bn all-share deal. The Yanks are back, says The Times (£) and they’re hunting bigger game.

Vaping liquids manufacturers Supreme is pursuing a floatation on Aim – probably in mid-May – expected to be valued at £100m-£150m The Times (£) and the BBC. The company owns the 88vape and KiK vaping brands and also supplies batteries and lightbulbs. Berenberg is advising it. The float is expected to raise about £10m to cut its debts of less than £5m and fund expansion, the report says. Supreme’s customers include Booker, Bestway, Costcutter, Asda, Iceland, Poundland and B&M.

The government’s overhaul of the rating appeals system has been labelled “shambolic” after Colliers International made a freedom of information request to the Valuation Office Agency that revealed great dissatisfaction among 71% of companies The Times (£).

Boston Tea Party, the independently-owned café chain with 21 branches across the South West and the Midlands, is poised to become Britain’s first to implement a complete ban on disposable cups on 1 June, says The Independent.

Sky News has obtained data revealing a stark increase in food bank use in areas where universal credit claimants struggle to pay for housing and food. The Trussel Trust has seen a 52% uplift in food bank usage in such areas over the past year, it says.

An analysis by BBC 5 Live’s Wake up to Money has found that nearly 650 shops and restaurants run by a handful of major chains, including Marks & Spencer, have shut since the beginning of the year or are at risk of closing. The BBC notes that M&S is in the middle of a store closure plan with six to shut by the end of this month. A further seven will close later in 2018.

The BBC reports on a veggie burger that bleeds when you cut it. It asks whether lab-grown veggie alternatives can wean us off our addiction to red meat. It says Silicon Valley tech companies are betting on it.

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