St-Tropez

PZ Cussons is offloading self-tanning brand St Tropez and exploring a sale of its Africa business, after the devaluation of the Nigerian naira and chronic inflation on the continent eroded the group’s profitability (The Financial Times £).

The decision to sell the brand follows a strategic review of the company’s brands and geographies (The Times £).

St Tropez, purchased by PZ Cussons for £62.5m in 2010, is popular with celebrities, including reality television star Kim Kardashian and American model Ashley Graham, and is sold across 28 countries, according to the brand’s website (The Mail).

Heineken, the world’s second-largest brewer, sold more beer than expected in the first quarter, notching up its first increase in volumes in 12 months after higher prices hit demand last year (The Financial Times £).

Better-than-expected sales and volumes at Reckitt Benckiser as well as reassurance over litigation facing its premature baby formula business in the United States helped lift shares in one of the world’s biggest consumer goods companies (The Times £).

On a topsy-turvy day Reckitt Benckiser was among the winners as the Footsie set a new record before giving up its gains, according to the market report in The Mail.

The new chairman of Pret a Manger has vowed to slash its debt pile, amid a boardroom shake-up that has seen its co-founder return to “reaffirm” the company’s values (The Telegraph £).

Trip, a fast-growing London company known for its products containing CBD, has launched four new Mindful Blend canned drinks based on consumer research (The Times £).

The blend took 18 months to develop and would bring “three emerging and viral ingredients into the mainstream”, it added. Read more in The Grocer here.

Customers can skip the traffic jams and queues at Diddly Squat farm to buy products ranging from hand-cut crisps and chutneys to coffee and ‘cow juice’ vodka on Amazon Fresh (The Times £).

The Grocer covered the story earlier this week with the Amazon listing coming a week ahead of the start of the third series of Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime Video. Read more here.

The market report in The Times (£) writes that Ocado founder Tim Steiner’s long-held ambition to transform his business into the “Tesla of grocery” has received a further blow as analysts at HSBC highlighted the fact that the robot warehouse business might not be as high growth as hoped.

The John Lewis Partnership is taking steps to address concerns that it may be missing out on otherwise excellent employees who struggle with formal interviews by publishing questions online to help candidates (The Times £).

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