Source: Asda

Asda’s private equity co-owner has valued its stake in the grocer at almost 20 times the amount it paid last year, an exceptional paper return enabled by the extensive financial engineering used in the takeover (The Financial Times £).

The finance chief of Asda has quit less than a year after he was promoted by the supermarket’s new owners, The Times (£) reported over the weekend. John Fallon is to be replaced by Michael Gleeson, the former chief financial officer at Morrisons.

‘Rising costs batter small businesses from all sides,’ reports The Times (£). Entrepreneurs are facing inflationary pressures including surges in the price of energy and higher distribution charges.

Threats facing business ‘are bigger than pandemic’ (The Times £). Soaring inflation and rising geopolitical risks triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have left British businesses grappling with a vicious cost crunch, two surveys spell out today.

Britain’s economy is at growing risk of falling into a summer recession amid the biggest squeeze on household incomes since the mid 1950s, as soaring inflation curtails consumer spending power, forecasters have said (The Guardian).

A feature in The Times (£) on Saturday looks at the ‘perfect maelstrom’ facing supermarkets. Retailers are braced for a hit to their bottom line as inflation, the Ukraine war and rising energy bills take their toll, the paper writes.

The government should relax competition laws and intervene in the gas market as the country faces a food production crisis on a scale not seen since the Second World War, the head of the National Farmers’ Union has said (The Times £).

Ocado has been ordered to pay a former employee £20,000 in damages after he raised concerns about fire safety in one of its warehouses (The Telegraph). The grocery giant is facing allegations that its managers forced out an employee after he warned cardboard materials and pallets were blocking access to fire extinguishers and fire exits in one of its sites.

Managers at the FTSE 100 online grocery business ignored warnings over health and safety, according to an employment tribunal judgment, which said they instead marked the employee as a “complainer” (The Times £).

THG has suffered a fresh blow after the founder of one of its leading beauty businesses resigned and brands complained of late payments (The Sunday Times £).

The high street chemist Boots is joining the ranks of retailers vowing to stop selling all wet wipes that contain plastic fibres, as part of efforts to cut non-biodegradable waste (The Guardian).

‘Supermarkets’ annual Easter egg bonanza to end,’ reads a headline in The Guardian over the weekend. Shoppers may soon have to hunt for chocolate eggs as anti-obesity law dictates how and where unhealthy foods can be sold.

An interview with Proper co-founder Cassandra Stavrou in The Times (£) reveals she felt she had to conceal her pregnancy while selling her company to a private equity firm.

Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell group has become the third company to sue the UK’s gambling regulator over its decision to award the next National Lottery licence to Czech operator Allwyn, making it the most contested award in the competition’s history (The Financial Times £).

The man presiding over the award of a licence to run the lottery to a Czech billionaire has extensive links to Russia, according to The Mail on Sunday.

Pubs, cafes and restaurants in city and town centres stand to lose £3bn of spending a year as office staff continue to work some of the week from home (The Telegraph).

The baby clothing and maternity wear retailer JoJo Maman Bébé – whose high-profile customers include the Duchess of Cambridge – has been snapped up by the high street company Next and a group of investment firms (The Guardian).