Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever is leading a pack of bidders for Graze amid transatlantic interest in a takeover of the snack-food brand. Unilever is close to securing a period of exclusivity within which to finalise the purchase of Graze’s parent company, ND1T Limited. (Sky News)

The auditor of Patisserie Valerie’s owner has been accused of having “fingerprints all over the crime scene” after it failed to identify a £40m fraud (The Times £). The long-term auditors of collapsed chain Patisserie Valerie have been castigated for claiming they are “not set up” to spot fraud (The Telegraph). The former auditor of the collapsed cake chain Patisserie Valerie has argued that it is not the role of accountants to uncover fraud (The Guardian).

David Dunckley, chief executive of Grant Thornton, came under fire from competitors and MPs on Wednesday after telling a House of Commons committee that his firm did not look for fraud when carrying out audits (The Financial Times £). The head of the accountancy firm facing a regulatory investigation over the quality of its work amid the collapse of Patisserie Valerie has told MPs company audits are not structured to look for fraud (Sky News). Beancounter Grant Thornton faced a battering over its handling of scandal-hit Patisserie Valerie’s accounts as investors prepared to sue the cafe chain (The Daily Mail).

Patisserie Valerie failed to share a devastating fraud report with its banks as it grappled to secure a funding lifeline prior to its collapse last week. Neither HSBC nor Barclays were reportedly given sight of analysis prepared by forensic accountants from PwC. (The Telegraph)

Patisserie Valerie, the café chain that is embroiled in an accounting scandal, was involved in a motor racing team whose drivers included the company’s chief executive and his son. (The Times £)

The chief executive of McDonald’s says the world’s biggest hamburger chain is facing “significant challenges” as a result of rising financial uncertainty among consumers from the UK to China (The Financial Times £). The appetite for cheap hamburgers and fries grew at the end of last year, helping McDonald’s to report its 51st consecutive quarter of growth in the UK and Ireland (The Times £).

English and Welsh town centres have lost 8% of their shops on average since 2013, according to a Guardian analysis, with some major destinations such as Stoke and Blackpool shuttering two out of 10 town centre sites over the past five years. (The Guardian)

The number of businesses in major financial trouble spiked towards the end of last year as a “winter of discontent” over the direction of the economy dented investment levels and consumer confidence (The Telegraph).

Caffè Nero has boosted its presence across Wales, the Midlands and southern England after acquiring a majority holding in the Coffee#1 chain. It has acquired about 70% for an undisclosed sum from SA Brain, the Welsh brewer and pub operator, which will retain the rest. (The Times £)

Smokers are almost twice as likely to quit successfully if they use ecigarettes rather than more traditional nicotine replacement therapies, a large UK trial has shown. (The Financial Times £)

Low and non-alcoholic beers are becoming increasingly popular in an otherwise stagnant beer market, according to new research from Swiss lender UBS. (The Financial Times £)

Germany is the world’s second-biggest coffee exporter, though not a single bean is harvested there. This should stick in the craw in Vietnam, which grows more robusta than any other country, but which exports most of this as raw, unbranded coffee beans to markets such as Germany for processing, branding and marking up for sale to end users. (The Financial Times £)

 

Topics