Unilever increased its prices by 12.5% in the third quarter from a year earlier, its highest-ever quarterly rise, becoming the latest consumer goods maker to pass steep cost inflation on to customers (Financial Times £).
The owner of Marmite, Hellmann’s, Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream has warned of further price rises after commodity, labour and energy costs resulted in the biggest quarterly increases in its history (The Guardian).
The consumer goods giant pressed ahead with its highest ever quarterly price rise as sales rose by 10.6% to €15.8bn in the three months to September 30 (The Times £).
Consumer goods giant Unilever has raised its annual outlook after price hikes helped compensate for a drop in sales volumes during the last quarter (Daily Mail).
Chief executive Alan Jope said it was “more or less impossible” to predict where costs would be this time next year, but that he is expecting inflationary pressures to continue in the first half of 2023 (The Telegraph).
Amazon warned consumer spending was in “uncharted waters” as it issued revenue forecasts well below Wall Street expectations, sending its shares down nearly 13% after-hours and deepening the sense of gloom hanging over the tech sector (Financial Times £).
Amazon shares dropped close to 20% in after-hours trading on Thursday after the company said its all-important holiday shopping season would be smaller than expected (The Guardian).
Amazon shares collapsed by 18% on Thursday night, wiping $202bn (£175bn) off its valuation in one of the biggest one-day sell-offs of all time (The Telegraph).
Amazon warned that its operating profits could be all but wiped out in the fourth quarter as it grapples with the highest inflation in a generation and intense competition (The Times £).
Amazon forecast net sales of between £121bn and £128bn for the last three months of 2022. Analysts were expecting £134bn (Daily Mail).
Marks & Spencer is half way through a costly plan to modernise its stores by 2028. The eventual bill will be more than £1bn, but the 138-year-old chain insists the strategy is starting to pay off (The Financial Times £).
The comedian Griff Rhys Jones is the latest high-profile name to weigh in against Marks & Spencer’s plan to raze and redevelop its main London store, accusing the retailer of not making the most of its landmark building (The Guardian).
M&S is a shining example of how not to treat the high street – or the planet, writes Simon Jenkins in The Guardian.
Sales of air fryers, slow cookers, microwaves and electric blankets are soaring as households faced with unaffordable energy bills look for ways to reduce their power use (The Guardian).
Dame Sharon White, the first ever female chair of John Lewis Partnership, has been named the UK’s most influential black person (The Guardian).
Retail sales rebounded in October from the month before but the bounceback is likely to be short-lived, according to the CBI employers’ group (The Times £).
English sparkling wine company Gusbourne is toasting “near perfect” growing conditions that it says should produce one of its best vintages (The Times £).
Altria, the cigarette maker behind the Marlboro brand in the US, has launched a joint venture with Japan Tobacco in its latest push into the burgeoning market for smoke-free alternatives (Financial Times £).
Shopify shares popped on Thursday after it beat analysts’ estimates for the third quarter, despite it warning that the strong US dollar, higher inflation and rising interest rates would hit customers’ spending power (Financial TImes £).
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