Profits at Asda doubled last year as the supermarket chain announced that it would be launching a new value range of groceries with a similar name to Waitrose’s cut-price line (The Times £).

Waitrose is at loggerheads with Asda after the budget supermarket announced plans to launch a cut-price range with a similar name to its “Essential Waitrose” brand (The Telegraph). Waitrose, which has used the Essential Waitrose brand for about 13 years, said it had sent a legal letter to its bigger rival over its new brand name Just Essentials by Asda on Monday (The Guardian). Waitrose, which has around 1,000 products in its Essential Waitrose range, said it was ‘surprised’ to hear Asda had used the name (The Daily Mail).

Heineken and Carlsberg announced plans to offload their operations in Russia on Monday and take “substantial” hits to their businesses, as the international brewers became the latest consumer companies to bow to pressure to exit the country following the invasion of Ukraine (The Financial Times £).

Sky’s Ian King writes: “Russia, the world’s fifth largest country in terms of overall beer drinking, was one of the few major markets around the world where beer consumption actually rose during the pandemic-hit year of 2020. That is why the decisions today from Carlsberg and Heineken to pull out completely from Russia will have been difficult.” (Sky News)

Cadbury has slashed the size of its family-size bars of Dairy Milk by 10% as the nation’s favourite chocolate falls prey to “shrinkflation” (The Guardian). Parent firm Mondolez said it was the first example of so-called shrinkflation at the UK chocolate brand for a decade (Sky News). Mondelez blamed costs associated with the production of its chocolate spiking, as it reduced the bars’ size from 200g to 180g (The BBC).

Iceland will temporarily return to using palm oil in some own-label foods from June because the price of a key alternative – sunflower oil – has soared by 1,000% during the war in Ukraine. (The Guardian)

Walmart has started to remove cigarettes from some American shops as executives at the grocery giant consider its future as a seller of tobacco products. (The Times £)

Books, stationery, phone chargers, toys and exam study guides are the latest items to be ferried to customers on fast-track delivery bikes via a partnership between WH Smith and Deliveroo. (The Guardian)

Sainsbury’s will do well to take the low-pay pressure seriously, writes The Guardian’s Nils Pratley. “In the midst of a cost of living crisis, there is a strong sense that if cuddly Sainsbury’s, which will gush endlessly about its responsible approach to doing business, can’t step up in all respects, then nobody in the supermarket industry ever will.” (The Guardian)

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