Tesco has fired the latest salvo in what is being dubbed the “time wars” between food retailers by launching a same-day click and collect service for grocery orders (The Telegraph). “The initiative catapults Tesco ahead of its closest rival Sainsbury, which last month began trialling a similar service for same-day delivery and collections from three of its stores”, writes The Financial Times (£).

As Amazon enters the grocery fray in the UK, The Times (£) looks at the online giant today, concluding: “Amazon is no longer banking on its original purpose. Online is low margin and increasingly competitive. In the drive to find and retain new customers, boost sales and develop the business, it is focused on technology — both services and devices — and third-party fulfilment.”

British workers are seeing inflation catch up with their pay rises as the cost of living rises faster and salary growth stalls, figures suggested today. On average pay increased by 2% in the three months to July, only marginally ahead of the 1.9% annual rise in the retail price index in July. (The Daily Mail)

Chinese private equity group CDH Investments is to raise $1.2bn by selling down one-third of its holding in WH Group, the Sino-US pork producer whose struggles to list in 2014 were an embarrassment for Hong Kong’s investment banking community. (The Financial Times £)

The FT’s Lex column says the Australian grocery market is a case of the winner being the best of two losers. It writes: “Investment success is as much about avoiding losers as picking winners. Australia’s supermarket operators, Wesfarmers and Woolworths, have not been good at this” (The Financial Times £). Separately it writes: “The rapid incursion of Aldi into Australia’s A$100bn supermarkets and groceries sector has exposed problems at its biggest chain Woolworths, as the German discount operator pushes deeper into a market that has long been a cosy domestic duopoly. (The Financial Times £)

Monsanto, the US chemicals groups that revolutionised Indian cotton farming, said it had scrapped plans to launch a new generation of pest-resistant cotton seeds in India, in protest at its acrimonious dispute with New Delhi over royalties. (The Financial Times £)

Meanwhile, the furore over governance at Sports Direct rumbles on. An employment agency that supplies warehouse workers to Sports Direct has put itself on a collision course with MPs after declining to amend evidence it gave at a parliamentary hearing (The Times £). A powerful City group, the Investor Forum, whose members manage assets worth £14trn will on Thursday take the unprecedented step of publicly criticising corporate governance and working practices at Sports Direct (Sky News). Sports Direct will open its doors to the public on the day of the retailer’s annual general meeting, giving people an opportunity to speak to board directors following months of criticism over the treatment of workers (The Guardian).

Foreign convenience stores in China face a challenge in lower-tier cities, according to The Financial Times (£). Though market is surging, foreign operators will struggle to replicate first-tier dominance, it says.

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