Marks & Spencer is the main focus of the papers this morning after it announced yesterday that more than 500 jobs will be cut at its head offices as the retailer tries to turn around its performance (The Times). Staff reduction will be achieved through redundancies, non-replacement of leavers and cutting contractors (The Guardian). The retailer has become has become “too complex and inefficient”, M&S said in a statement (The Telegraph). The Telegraph’s chief business reporter writes that new CEO Steve Rowe has thrown the dice in a risky game. “These cuts look like training to enter the ring rather than the bout itself. Rowe wants the body of the business in shape after Bolland allowed it to get flabby.”
Sainsbury’s speeding up the Argos roll-out after completing the Home Retail deal also gets a look in this morning. The Telegraph says the retailer is rolling out Argos stores with haste as it hopes to cash in on its £1.4bn acquisition before Christmas. It will more than double the number of Argos outlets in its stores by Christmas and there are also plans to introduce home furnishings retailer Habitat into supermarkets for the first time (The Mail). Five Habitat concessions will also open in Sainsbury’s stores over the next few months, offering more than 600 products (The Guardian).
Bayer said late on Monday it was in “advanced” talks over the acquisition of Monsanto and it was willing to sweeten its offer again for the US seeds group, The Financial Times reports. The German business said in a statement that “while key terms and conditions have not yet been agreed”, it would be willing to pay up to $127.50 a share for Monsanto, valuing its equity at $56bn.
German retail group Metro confirmed it would push ahead with its plan to split itself in two, spinning off its food business, separating it from its consumer electronics arm (The Financial Times).
Rising inflationary pressure indicated by yesterday’s UK Services purchasing managers’ index is not filtering through to the grocery sector, The FT’s Lex column says. “On the same days as the dizzy PMI survey, Morrisons, the fourth-biggest grocer in the UK by market share, announced price cuts covering a range of meat and produce. This will cheer carnivores (gammon joint will be nearly 20 per cent cheaper; pass the mustard). It is dour news for the industry.”
Only 3% of UK householders think there is a stigma attached to wasting food, while many try to save money by switching off lights or turning down the heating, instead of reducing food waste, according to a report by Sainsbury’s reported in The Guardian.
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