The success of David Potts’ recovery plan at Morrisons is recognised by this morning’s papers after a striking first quarter update. The Financial Times says that the turnaround at the supermarket is gaining pace as it beat City expectations with a 3% sales rise, which the retailer put down partly to its own-brand product overhaul. Demand for lamb shanks with rioja sauce and chocolate eggs over Easter helped Morrisons to report a strong surge in sales in the first quarter, The Times writes. Like-for-like sales rose by 3.4% at the grocer in the 13 weeks to 30 April. The Telegraph and The Mail both focus on the importance of price cuts at the supermarket in fuelling the latest results. Morrisons also unveiled – for the first time – the 0.4% contribution from its wholesale business, which includes its Amazon partnership and its manufacturing business.

Brewing behemoth AB InBev reported an increase in underlying first-quarter profits and a return to growth in Brazil but failed to stem the decline of Bud Light in the US, according to The Financial Times. The Times adds that strong sales of Stella Artois and Corona helped AB InBev to report better first-quarter results than expected yesterday. Revenue from Stella jumped by 21% thanks to strong sales in the US and Argentina as sales of Corona climbed by 18% worldwide.

A decline in demand from publicans to lease premises during the sales process to Heineken pushed the UK’s second largest pub group by number of sites to a first half pre-tax loss, The Telegraph writes. Punch Taverns suffered a £174.5m loss in its most recent half year, significantly down from the £54.7m profit it made in the same period last year.

Unilever has struck a joint venture deal with a local consumer goods rival in Myanmar as part of a bigger bet on the fast-opening country despite a fall in economic growth and the currency (The Financial Times).

In the wider retail world, the papers have plenty to say on the woes at Next. Shares in the high street bellwether fell sharply on Thursday after the British clothing chain revealed an 8.1% decline in full-price store sales, and told investors not to expect profits to come close to last year’s already diminished result (The Financial Times). Next warned that the UK consumer environment remained challenging, particularly in the clothing and homeware markets, and that real wage growth was now close to zero (The Mail).

Retail Acquisitions, the company owned by former bankrupt Dominic Chappell and through which he made his ill-fated 2015 purchase of BHS, is to be put into liquidation, more than a year after the department store chain fell into administration (The Financial Times). The Guardian says that the demise of firm could aid BHS administrators seeking to recover funds owed to creditors.

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