The British owner of popular food brands including Branston, Batchelors and Flora is set to be sold to an Italian group for £700m (The Times £).
Liverpool-based Princes Group has been sold by Mitsubishi Corporation to Newlat Food (The Mail).
Labour has won the endorsement of a coalition of business leaders - including the founder of Iceland - who have said that a “new outlook” is needed so the UK can “break free” from a decade of economic stagnation (The Times £).
Rachel Reeves will pledge on Tuesday to lead the most “pro-growth” Treasury in UK history if Labour wins the general election (The Guardian).
High street giants Next and Marks & Spencer have made early expressions of interest in bidding for The Body Shop as an auction for the stricken cosmetics chain gets underway (The Sunday Times £).
UK shop inflation eased in May, helped by falling prices of furniture and other non-food items, according to industry data that offers some relief to households hit by more than two years of elevated costs (The Financial Times £).
Figures published by the British Retail Consortium and NielsenIQ, which are likely to be seized upon by the Conservatives in the general election campaign, show that the rate of increase in shop prices has fallen to 0.6% on an annual basis in May, down from an increase of 0.8% in the previous month (The Times £).
Food prices rose by 3.2% compared with 3.4% a month before, led by an easing of price increases on fresh food despite concerns about production during the cold wet spring (The Guardian).
The cost of international shipping has shot up as businesses prepare to ship goods for the festive season far earlier than usual, in a sign of the far-reaching effects of disruption from attacks in the Red Sea (The Financial Times £).
The Observer examines how ‘convenient’ recipe boxes really measure up on price. The paper reckons customers can save up to 74% of the cost of the meals by buying the ingredients separately in the supermarket.
An Indian pharmaceutical group is closing in on a deal to snap up Nicotinell, the anti-smoking aid, from Haleon, its FTSE-100 parent company, according to Sky News.
The Telegraph (£) examines why more online shoppers than ever are ditching their baskets at the till, with rising delivery fees and a resurgent high street making buyers think twice.
Western companies including Avon Products, Air Liquide and Reckitt have remained in Russia despite saying they planned to leave after the invasion of Ukraine, as bureaucratic obstacles increase and consumer activity rebounds (The Financial Times £).
Demand for Unilever’s high-end cosmetic brands has surged despite the cost of living crisis in contrast to its mass market businesses in food, soap and detergent, says the head of the group’s premium beauty arm (The Financial Times £).
THG has become embroiled in a bitter High Court legal dispute with a former Australian business partner over claims of unpaid bills (The Telegraph £).
Soaring inflation and the impact of “global macroeconomic headwinds” on food, labour and utility costs took an £82m bite out of Greene King’s profit last year (The Times £).
The Times (£) also has an interview with Greene King CEO Nick Mackenzie who vows the business won’t sell its beer business to focus on pubs.
The Mail continues to focus on M&S following results last week, with a business editorial arguing that when the retailer does well ” the whole country feels better”.
An opinion column in The Observer says the writer is “emotionally invested” in M&S’s fortunes, but doesn’t know why. She asks “why do we treat it like a national treasure when it’s just another multinational business that wants our cash?”
The growing interest in strength training and the popularity of supplements such as collagen and magnesium helped to lift sales at Bulk, the sports nutrition brand, by 30% to £123.1m last year (The Times £).
Nongshim, South Korea’s leading instant noodle maker, says it is accelerating overseas expansion as its ramen products benefit from the growing popularity of Korean culture in countries such as the US (The Financial Times £).
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