High Street chains were braced this morning for the reopening of stores as they tempt shoppers back, with the City watching for signs that consumers are not afraid to head out, and that social distancing does not ruin the shopping experience (The Daily Mail)

After two-and-a-half months in lockdown, non-essential shops in England will be allowed to reopen their doors today, but many small retailers fear for their survival amid a boom in online sales and new social distancing rules (Sky News). Amid fears about the health of the UK economy, getting a key part of the service sector running again is vital. But retail experts warned shops were unlikely to see any immediate relief (The BBC).

The scale of the challenge facing retailers opening their doors for the first time since March is laid bare today by worrying new evidence suggesting half of shoppers could stay away. (The Telegraph)

Local councils and retail giants will deploy a small army of “social distancing wardens” on Monday to police crowds as non-essential shops open their doors after almost three months of lockdown. (The Guardian)

John Allan, the Tesco chairman who ends his second one-year term in the CBI presidency on Tuesday, is gloomily clear about the further pain looming for the economy ahead despite the efforts of the Government to protect jobs through the coronavirus job retention scheme. “We are facing a very, very bad autumn,” he warns. (The Telegraph)

High Street landlords face a reckoning as coronavirus leads to a ‘new reality’, according to a senior Primark executive. (The Daily Mail)

Britain’s economy will shrink by 8% this year but it should rebound faster than initially expected, according to the EY Item Club. (The Times £)

The Bank of England is expected to unleash a further £150bn of stimulus in its latest attempt to cushion the economic damage from Covid-19 — as fresh evidence emerges of the rise in unemployment caused by the lockdown (The Times £). The head of the Bank of England has said it stands “ready to take action” after the UK suffered a record economic collapse over the coronavirus lockdown (Sky News).

A US trade deal could pose the greatest risk to food safety since the mad cow disease crisis 20 years ago, the government has been warned. Consumer group Which? has written to International Trade Secretary Liz Truss as a new round of negotiations gets under way between US and UK officials. (Sky News)

The UK’s fruit and vegetable growers are facing a steep increase in costs and struggling to retain hastily recruited local pickers after the coronavirus lockdown prevented the arrival of the usual seasonal workforce from eastern Europe. (The Financial Times £)

John Allan, the chairman of Tesco, has defended as “right and fair” its controversial decision to boost the pay of outgoing chief executive Dave Lewis by removing Ocado from the list of rivals used to set his bonus. (The Telegraph)

The UK wine industry has accused the government of misleading the public over the cost of not securing a trade deal with the EU, warning that prices would rise and choice fall given the “catastrophic” impact from border red tape. (The Financial Times £)

Bustling offices, shops and stations are the lifeblood of the £8bn sandwich industry, which has seen almost 40 years of growth turned on its head by Covid-19. Sales in London have all but vanished and other towns and cities have been badly affected, too. (The Times £)

Analysts suggest Unilever’s move to shift to a single UK structure revives speculation about “substantial portfolio changes”, pointing to ideas such as a demerger of the food and drinks business, as well as “big-ticket M&A”. They point out that the Dutch government has sought assurances that if the food operation is spun out, it will be listed in Amsterdam. (The Times £)

Nestlé is mulling a sale of its North American mass-market bottled water business. It may struggle to find a buyer, writes The Financial Times (£). “Nestlé’s US water brands Poland Spring, Deer Park and Pure Life compete at the bottom end of the market in a category dominated by discount private labels and Coca-Cola’s Dasani [and] It has been too slow to move into flavoured, sparkling water.”

Ocado co-founder Jonathan Faiman, who is embroiled in a bitter court battle with the online grocer, faces another daunting legal foe in the form of a billionaire fertiliser oligarch. He is being pursued by Valla, a vehicle controlled by the Russian tycoon Andrey Melnichenko, which claims Faiman failed to make repayments and is going to chase him through London courts. (The Times £)

Holland & Barratt boss Tony Buffin tells The Times (£) how the chain began hoarding the ingredients he would need to cope with a surge in demand for Holland & Barrett’s health food products. Buffin repurposed 50 shops as mini distribution centres to handle online orders, which jumped from 8,000 to 30,000 a day, driven primarily by over-65s adopting e-commerce. The chain has now teamed up with Deliveroo for home delivery.

Whisky, like cigar smoke and musty leather armchairs, has been linked with masculinity for decades. But change is afoot. Women are drinking and distilling whisky in ever growing numbers, while men are switching to other poisons. (The Guardian)

Carbon-neutral coffee comes to UK – via sail boat from Colombia to Cornwall. Yallah Coffee’s beans now arrive on a schooner. Has the prospect of wind-powered cargo finally landed, asks The Guardian?

 

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