The new boss of Marks & Spencer is planning a U-turn on his predecessor’s foray overseas.
Steve Rowe is reviewing the future of its international shops and is keen to ditch expensive leases signed during Marc Bolland’s reign as chief executive. Rowe could drastically reduce M&S’s overseas shops again, particularly those with expensive rents in cities such as Paris. (The Daily Mail)
Steve Rowe, an M&S lifer, is making the retailer’s international shop estate his next priority after claiming that a decline in overseas profits was “not sustainable”. (The Telegraph)
City dealers are betting that share prices of some of Britain’s biggest food retailers are set to tumble. Expectations that Asda will launch a price war in an attempt to halt its sales decline have raised fears that all grocers are likely to see their profit margins battered. Morrisons, Ocado and Sainsbury’s occupy three of the four top places in the list of shares on the stock market being most aggressively “shorted” (The Times £). Separately The Times (£) writes: “Short-sellers are gambling on a collapse in Tesco’s shares in greater numbers than ever almost two years to the day since Dave Lewis was parachuted in as chief executive”.
Mondelez International has abandoned its pursuit of Hershey to create the largest confectionery company, after the producer of Oreos and Cadbury’s chocolate refused to make an offer high enough to interest its rival. (The Financial Times £)
Ministers are under pressure to allow shops to sell meat, fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces ahead of Britain leaving the European Union. Customers have been asking shop owners if they can have groceries weighed in pounds and ounces rather than metric weights. (The Telegraph)
The managing director of Harrods has said that uncertainty caused by Brexit prompted his decision to stay on for the foreseeable future. Michael Ward had decided to step down this summer after 11 years in the role but the company said in May that he would continue to run the world’s most famous store. (The Times £)
The Times (£) follows up The Grocer’s story that the company behind a chain of artisan bakeries saw its sales rise by 42% last year. Revenues at Bread Holdings, owner of Gail’s Artisan Bakery, climbed to £63.7m. Pre-tax profits increased to £4.8m compared with £2.8m the year before. (The Times £)
A fast-growing business that makes low-calorie popcorn in flavours such as sweet coconut and vanilla has raised £7m as it aims for global growth. Propercorn, founded five years ago by friends Cassandra Stavrou and Ryan Kohn, has received funding from Piper, the private equity firm behind jewellery maker Monica Vinader and posh swimwear brand Orlebar Brown. (The Times £)
At least 5,500 jobs around the world will be cut following Anheuser-Busch InBev’s £79bn takeover of FTSE 100 brewer SABMiller, it has been revealed, as it emerged the two companies have racked up almost $2bn in taxes and fees thrashing out the deal. (The Telegraph). Advisers will land a massive fee bonanza from the £79bn mega merger of two of the world’s biggest brewers (The Daily Mail)
Tea and coffee specialist Whittard has hailed a year of ‘solid progress’ after rebranding its core products, closing loss-making stores – and overhauling its website and mobile offering. (The Daily Mail)
BHS closed its doors for the last time over the weekend, with scores of bargain hunters turned up at the last shops and queues forming outside some branches on Sunday. (The Guardian)
Sir Philip Green is seeking assurances that regulators will abandon a probe into BHS’s vast pension deficit if he makes a “voluntary” financial contribution to the retirement pots of thousands of the collapsed chain’s former employees. (Sky News) BHS pensioners are facing a protracted wait over the future of their payments, as it will take “months” for Sir Philip Green to broker a deal to plug the retailer’s pension black hole, it has emerged. (The Telegraph)
Fresh questions over BHS collapse as final stores close, writes The Times (£). New links emerge between Dominic Chappell and fraudster involved in original deal.
Advisers to the Co-operative Bank could recommend winding down the troubled lender as it embarks on a review of its future. Corporate advisers from Bank of America Merrill Lynch have the task of helping the Co-op management to get the business into shape for a potential sale, or even an eventual shutdown. (The Times £)
The FT’s Lex column looks at Aussia Coke bottler Coca-Cola Amatil, writing: “Markets can be slow to digest results. On Monday, shares in Coca-Cola Amatil, the Australian franchisee for the fizzy drink, rose 6 per cent, erasing a 4 per cent drop after first-half results on Friday. The bubbly pop will fizzle.” (The Financial Times £)
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