Starbucks UK has reported its first annual loss since 2013 after store closures, rising costs and the renegotiation of leases took their toll — but it was landed with a higher tax bill than the previous year (The Times £). Starbucks has become the latest household name to feel the pinch as profits were wiped out by Britain’s high street malaise (The Telegraph). Starbucks sharply increased the amount of tax it paid on profits from its European business last year, despite revealing a loss in the UK for the first time in five years (The Financial Times £). Starbucks’ UK-based European business paid just £18.3m in tax last year, while paying £348m in royalty dividend payments for the use of the brand to the coffee giant’s parent company in Seattle (The Guardian).

Boots has revealed a new-look shop format as part of an overhaul of its flagging UK business that will also involve closures (The Times £). Boots is ramping up spending on stores and experimenting with new formats as it looks to lift sales and take back market share (The Financial Times £). Boots is opening a concept store featuring a beauty hall with its own YouTube studio as part of one of the biggest makeovers in the retailer’s 170-year history (The Guardian). “It’s quite tough out there, but I think we’re in a good place.” That was the verdict of Boots boss Sebastian James about the prospects of the chemist chain as he unveiled its new flagship store in London’s Covent Garden on Wednesday (The Telegraph).

General Mills tumbled more than 9% in morning trade, dragging share prices of its peers along for the ride, after declining snack sales in its main North American market and poor performances from its international divisions saw the food manufacturer fall short of Wall Street’s revenue expectations. (The Financial Times £)

Pizza Express proved it is not immune from the squeeze on the casual dining sector as sales slumped and annual losses doubled. The restaurant chain - one of the UK’s biggest with 14,000 employees - bemoaned “labour and property cost pressures” and last summer’s “extreme weather” in its annual report. (The Telegraph)

Henry Dimbleby, a co-founder of the restaurant chain Leon, has been appointed by the government to lead a landmark review of Britain’s food system to determine a national strategy lasting decades beyond Brexit. (The Guardian)

The economy will grow more slowly than had been expected next year because the risks of a global slowdown and the damage of Brexit uncertainty are likely to drag on economic growth, according to KPMG. (The Times £)

New figures from the Department for International Trade show that investment in the UK by overseas firms has declined sharply in recent years. The number of new projects in the UK fell 14% in 2018-19, while there was a 24% fall in the number of jobs created. (The BBC)

Jamie Oliver may have been forced to call time on his British restaurant dreams, but Gordon Ramsay is set to turn up the temperature on his American ambitions after teaming up with a private equity firm. (The Times £)

China has now found the crop-destroying fall armyworm in over half of its provinces, further threatening the country’s food security amid an outbreak of African swine fever that has led to the culling of at least 1m pigs. (The Financial Times £)

The drab architecture of Tesco’s 1970s-era headquarters in Cheshunt is set to be replaced by an altogether more modern vision. The site is going to be flattened and replaced by a £620 million “urban village”. (The Times £)

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