Sainsbury’s has revealed that its chief executive, Simon Roberts, received pay worth £3.8m in the latest financial year even as it rejected calls from big investors for it to ensure all workers in its stores receive a living wage (The Guardian).
As shoppers struggle, the UK’s second-biggest grocer gave its chief executive £2.8m in bonuses and incentives, and an £875,000 salary for the year to 5 March (The Mail).
The Lex column in The Financial Times (£) dives into the pros and cons of Sainsbury’s paying its workers the “real living wage”, with shareholders set to vote on the demand at the upcoming AGM. The paper argues the business case for the rise is weaker than the moral one. “Supermarkets operating on razor-thin margins will note there is no hard evidence to show better pay improves productivity.”
UK sales of low-alcohol and no-alcohol beers have almost doubled in five years as weaker versions of global brands such as Heineken and Budweiser helped convert drinkers from carbonated soft drinks, according to research group IWSR (The Financial Times £).
Motorists face a summer of “frightening” fuel prices, with the cost of petrol expected to hit a record 180p a litre by the end of this week (The Times £). Petrol prices rose by almost 6p a litre at forecourts over the bank holiday week to a new high of 177.9p, prompting the RAC, the motoring organisation, to call for “radical government intervention”.
British consumers cut back sharply on spending last month in almost all areas apart from holidays as the rising cost of living hit budgets hard, according to industry data (The Financial Times £).
Four days of jubilee celebrations provided some much-needed respite for Britain’s retailers after a tough May in which cost of living pressures weighed heavily on spending (The Guardian).
UK public companies are trading at a valuation discount totalling about £500bn since the “scarring impact” of the Brexit vote six years ago, according to research by City stockbroker Panmure Gordon (The Times £).
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