Big food brands such as PepsiCo and Kraft Heinz have sidestepped retailers as they started to sell DTC in the pandemic. However writes the FT, like most grocery ventures the sites are not expected to make money, but they are an experiment to learn first-hand what works with customers. Executives behind them say they have no ambition to replace retailers on a substantial scale any time soon (The Financial Times £).
During the pandemic shoppers in Milton Keynes could benefit from a small army of 80 delivery robots, operated by Estonian company Starship, strolled the streets taking groceries to homes without human contact needed. The robots can travel autonomously at 4 miles per hour to any location pinpointed on a mobile app. The can climb up kerbs, not stairs, and have a speaker in case they need to communicate with people (The Financial Times £).
Amazon is set to offer full-time jobs to 125k of the 175k US employees it hired to deal with a surge in demand during the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting it is confident it will hang on to the market share gained since the beginning of the pandemic (The Times £).
The ONS has warned that almost half of all businesses in the UK do not have enough cash reserves to see them through to November amid concerns businesses have become too reliant of the government support, which once cut will lead to a flurry failures (The Times £).
Two in five small business owners fear going bust within a year because of the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis, with the end of the lockdown not likely to be enough to save them, a survey of 3,700 SMEs led by insurer Simply Business showed (The Times £).
Pret a Manger is to reopen another 204 shops for takeaway and delivery from 1 June, taking its openings across the UK to more than 300. (The Guardian)
US Dollar stores have seen sales jump with quarterly like-for-like sales up 21.7% at Dollar General and 7% at Dollar Tree, as shoppers look for bargains (The Financial Times £).
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