The new owners of Morrisons have given the green light to plans to sell a £500m property portfolio months after completing the £7bn takeover of Britain’s fourth-biggest supermarket chain. Sky News reported CD&R is in the process of appointing advisors to oversee the disposal of a substantial chunk of Morrisons’ manufacturing and distribution facilities across the UK.
The £500m property sale will be one of the biggest shake-ups at the supermarket since CD&R took over (The Mail).
Morrisons has warned its profits are likely to take a significant hit this year as the cost of living crisis and disruption due to the war in Ukraine weigh on the grocery market (The Guardian).
The Bradford-based grocer, acquired by Clayton Dubilier & Rice in a £7.1bn deal last year, said that it believed consumer sentiment and spending had been weakening since the beginning of February, which “had an impact on sales and earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation” (The Times £).
Costs for UK manufacturers have “shot up in an unprecedented manner”, according to official statistics that point to the price of food rising further later this year (The Financial Times £).
Britain is not set for a repeat of the 1970s and war in Ukraine could lead to lower inflation than previously expected, a senior Bank of England official said (The Times £).
Chocolate-maker Ferrero is recalling some batches of Kinder Surprise eggs in the UK due to a link with salmonella, the Food Standards Agency has said (The Guardian).
Marks & Spencer has signed a partnership with Dotte, a two-year-old resale online platform that allows families to buy and sell children’s clothes (The Times £).
At least 18 “high street titans” – architecturally significant department stores that have fallen victim to profound changes in shopping patterns – are at risk of being permanently lost, according to a new report (The Guardian).
Fulham Shore, the owner of the restaurant chains Franco Manca and The Real Greek, has told shareholders that it expects full-year results to be ahead of market expectations (The Times £).
We face a major food crisis unless we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels in agricultural supply chains as the war in Ukraine bolsters the case for a new kind of farming, argues The Financial Times (£) in an opinion column.
Howard Schultz is suspending Starbucks’ share buyback programme, pledging on the first day of his third term as the US coffee chain’s chief executive to redirect the capital to its stores and staff (The Financial Times £).
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