It’s been another busy week on The Grocer.

This week’s issue marked the launch of the Top 150 UK Food & Drink Supplier Rankings Report for 2025, which The Grocer releases annually in association with OC&C Strategy Consultants. It’s fascinating to chart the ups and downs. And overall there’s good news, because after a period marked by crises from the pandemic and supply chain disruption to the worst of the cost of living crisis, the UK’s biggest food and drink companies have moved out of survival mode through investment in capex, including increased M&A, extra capacity, and, most poignantly, automation.

But for how long? It seems unlikely, judging by the noises from No 11 Downing St, that next Wednesday’s budget will deliver the ‘growth’ Chancellor Rachel Reeves keeps insisting she’s focused on. Indeed, as I argue in my leader, there is no growth strategy not just at a macroeconomic level but in terms of the National Food Strategy either.