Nisa shopkeepers are plotting to block the £143m Co-op takeover, which faces a crucial membership vote this week, according to The Sunday Times. The rebels claim the terms offered by the Co-op are unfair and want to halt the tie-up, which requires the approval of more than 50% of Nisa members.

The upcoming Marks & Spencer results this week get plenty of coverage this weekend, with The Telegraph writing at boss Steve Rowe is set to be ruthless with his turnaround plan, which includes accelerating the expansion of its food empire and taking a more ruthless approach to struggling clothing stores. The Mail on Sunday adds that new chairman Archie Norman is also tipped to try “a very tough” remedy to get profits back on track. The Guardian says that M&S is expected to ramp up its store-closure plan as a result of falling profits and tough trading conditions on the high street. The high street bellwether is expected to report a 12% dive in pre-tax profits because of sales and currency pressures, The Sunday Times reports. Norman has told senior managers that the retailer needs to cut clothing prices and that too much of its fashion is aimed at the over-55s, according to The Guardian.

Sainsbury’s is also in focus as the supermarket gets set to report its first-half results on Thursday. Slower growth in grocery sales and increasing cost pressures are expected to drag on the supermarket’s profits, The Sunday Times writes.

The prices of milk, meat and clothes could all soar if Britain fails to strike a free trade deal with the EU, as tariffs at the border would add to costs facing hard-pressed families, according to new research published by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (The Telegraph).

Alistair Osborne delivers a withering assessment of Bakkavor ‘wimping out’ and pulling its London IPO in a column in The Times on Saturday. He says maybe the real reason that Bakkavor reversed its plans was that they – along with Arqiva who cancelled its London listing on the same day – “simply wanted too much for questionable businesses.

BrewDog boss and co-founder James Watt is interviewed by The Sunday Times. The punk brewer says he’s not joined the Establishment despite taking private equity cash. “I’ve always said from day one that this business is going to be a complete global success, or it’s going to crash and burn,” Watt adds. “But that’s fine because the space in between is boring.”

The Sunday Times asks if the City can stop Unilever going Dutch on fears that the consumer goods giant will drop its UK listing following the rebuffed £115bn Kraft Heinz approach.

The Observer says Santa Claus may be coming to town, but asks will the shoppers go too? It writes that retailers must be finding it hard to be optimistic about Christmas trading amid dire reports of households feeling the pinch. The retailers are launching their 2017 Christmas adverts, with Asda’s and Argos’s the first to air (The Telegraph). The Mail on Sunday writes that bets in the City against three of Britain’s biggest high street retailers have topped £1bn as investors try to cash in on the decline of traditional shopping. Short-sellers are targeting Marks & Spencer, Next and Debenhams in the hope that their profits will drop.

The Mail on Sunday looks at how some major supermarkets now only sell ‘bags for life’ and says charities are losing out.

The Observer carries a story on a Dutch poultry owner who claims his new approach has the highest welfare standards and lowest cost to environment.

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