The owner of UK discount retailer Poundland, Pepco Group, has hoisted the ‘for sale’ sign over the struggling 825-store chain (Financial Times). It hopes to offload the business by September (Telegraph). Budget chains such as Poundland are having a particularly tough time due to rising competition from supermarkets (Guardian).
The owner of Boots, Walgreens Boots Alliance, has agreed to be taken over by a US private equity firm in a $10bn deal (Times). Private equity group Sycamore Partners has agreed to pay $11.45 a share to take Walgreens private, valuing its stock at a nearly 30% premium (Financial Times). The price is a fraction of the $100 billion the second-largest U.S. pharmacy chain was worth a decade ago (Reuters). The move brings to an end nearly a century of trading on public markets for Walgreens Boots Alliance (BBC).
Parents having fewer children are buying more expensive babyfood, according to the head of Nestlé’s nutrition business, Serena Aboutboul, as the world’s largest food company shifts its strategy to offset the impact of falling birth rates in developing nations and richer economies (Financial Times).
John Lewis has followed other retailers by giving its staff pay rises ahead of an increase to the UK minimum wage in April. About 65,000 workers will get a raise of at least 7.4%, the group said on Thursday (Standard).
The number of people visiting Scotland’s shops dropped last month, according to the Scottish Retail Consortium, which said the number of shoppers decreased by 0.3% in February compared to the same month of last year (Standard).
Shareholders in PizzaExpress are preparing to inject tens of millions of pounds into its parent company to help secure a refinancing of its debt amid tough trading in Britain’s casual dining sector (Sky News).
US grain prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks as retaliatory tariffs on the country’s agricultural exports fuel fears that a trade war will create a supply glut on global markets (Financial Times).
Donald Trump has announced that most goods imported from Mexico and some from Canada are to be exempt from his trade tariff regime for at least four weeks, just days after the charges were imposed (Sky News). Trump signed orders on Thursday, paring back the tariffs until April 2 (Bloomberg). It is the second time in two days that Trump has rolled back his taxes on imports from America’s two biggest trade partners (BBC).
McDonald’s has been bested in the number of locations its has worldwide by Mixue Bingcheng, a Chinese bubble tea and ice cream chain with over 45,000 restaurants worldwide (Independent).
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