Tesco shareholders delivered an emphatic rejection of the company’s remuneration policy on Friday, marking an embarrassing end to the tenure of chief executive Dave Lewis (The Financial Times £). Tesco suffered an embarrassing rebuke over executive pay after shareholders rebelled against the supermarket chain inflating bonuses by stripping out Ocado from a list of companies used to assess its performance - the revolt is among the largest suffered by a FTSE 100 company (The Times £). Tesco has suffered one of the biggest ever shareholder revolts over executive pay, casting a shadow over a strong sales performance during the coronavirus lockdown (The Guardian).
A surge in online orders and customers switching from Aldi has led to a sharp rise in sales for Tesco during lockdown. (The Times £)
Sales are soaring, but Sainsbury’s new boss is expecting a bumpy ride. Simon Roberts will be facing questions about pay policies at his very first outing this week as Pirc, the shareholder advisory group, is urging investors to oppose Sainsbury’s remuneration report. (The Guardian)
The owner of some of Britain’s biggest shopping centres has collapsed into administration in the latest demonstration of the damage being inflicted on the retail sector by Covid-19 (The Times £). Intu’s failure is one of the biggest ever seen in a property industry battered by the lockdown which has left retail and hospitality tenants unable to pay their rent (The Guardian). Some of Britain’s biggest shopping centres face closure, which threatens to pull the shutters down on a retail recovery (The Daily Mail).
Intu has endured a difficult decade, with sharp falls in its share price reflecting broader shifts in retail – a challenging retail environment and a mountainous debt pile have been compounded by the pandemic (The Financial Times £). The collapse and contraction of large retailers in the face of rising costs and the ever-increasing online shopping trend had already seen retailers closing outlets. That left a number of landlords, such as Intu, struggling to fill empty space as conditions get tougher (The BBC).
Following weeks of talks with its lenders, Intu’s board thought they had agreed a stay of execution — until CPPIB, a Canadian pension fund, dropped a bombshell on Thursday afternoon. (The Times £)
The Canadian pension fund that dashed Intu’s survival hopes is pushing for a quick sale of the Trafford Centre near Manchester — a deal that would reveal the extent of value destruction in Britain’s shopping centres (The Times £). The investor that torpedoed Intu’s survival hopes is keen to flog the Trafford Centre in a quick sale, according to reports (The Daily Mail)
Farmdrop, which delivers food direct from farmers, fishermen and producers, has received £6m in funding from the Wheatsheaf Group — part of the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Estate, which owns swathes of central London as well as the Liverpool One shopping mall. (The Times £)
Marks and Spencer is eyeing the UK arm of troubled lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret, one of several high street chains to have fallen into administration during the lockdown (The Financial Times £). Marks & Spencer, which has 27% the underwear market, and Next are interested in becoming the new UK franchise partner (The Times £). M&S and Next are understood to be competing with at least one other bidder to take control of the franchise for Victoria’s Secret in the UK (The Guardian).
Retailers are being warned to prepare for a painful hangover from the online shopping binge after extending their returns policies during the lockdown. (The Times £)
The casual dining chain behind the Ask Italian and Zizzi chains looks likely to be sold after attracting bids from five private equity and investment firms. (The Times £)
Restaurants “are hurting” due to the coronavirus pandemic, the boss of food courier Deliveroo has told the BBC. “Even if restrictions are lifted soon, there’s going to be a long period of socially-distanced dining,” said Will Shu. (The BBC)
Britain’s food-to-go industry struggles to earn a proper crust in the new normal, writes The Telegraph. With homeworking on the rise and travel stymied the sector faces a lean time ahead. (The Telegraph £)
Infarm, a German start-up developing indoor farms, is closing in on a new $200m investment, hoping to capitalise on renewed investor appetite for companies that can address food supply problems that arose during the pandemic. (The Financial Times £)
British robotics firm signs seven-year deal with Ocado, writes The Telegraph. The investment in Blyth-based Tharsus means Ocado can export more of its technology swiftly to other countries. (The Telegraph £)
Amazon lines up UK boss replacement, with the company is thought to be looking at internal candidates to fill the post (The Telegraph £).
Whitehall officials have been warned that any reduction to the access British vessels enjoy to the waters where most of the country’s fish and chip shop portions come from would be an “enormous failure” (The Times £).
Danone shareholders voted on Friday to enshrine the group’s mission to bring “health through food” to consumers into its corporate bylaws, becoming France’s first big listed company to adopt a new legal status created by the government last year. (The Financial Times £)
Burgundy’s winegrowers face sober summer as world abstains, writes The FT. Pandemic weighs on French vineyards but consumers ‘want to live and have some pleasure’. (The Financial Times £)
No comments yet