Retailers have suffered the “worst June on record” with total sales down 1.3% year-on-year in June, the monthly retail sales monitor from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG shows. Total sales fell 1.3% year-on-year in June, compared with a year-on-year increase of 2.3% in June 2018 (Financial Times £, The Times £). The Office for National Statistics is expected to report that the economy moved sideways between April and May when it provides its latest update on Wednesday (The Guardian). Reuters says the ongoing Conservative Party leadership election has aggravated uncertainty about Brexit. Its article refers back to Sainsbury’s reporting of a third straight quarter of declining underlying sales and Asda’s description of the business environment as “a perfect storm”.

Imperial Brands will drop a longstanding 10% annual growth target for its dividend after this financial year and base future payouts on the business’s performance (Financial Times £). It also announced a £200m share buyback scheme. The announcement lifted the share price by 2.5%, providing a spark of hope from investors in beleaguered fund manager Neil Woodford’s investors should he treat the buyback as an opportunity to sell, says Lombard in the (Financial Times £). Credit Suisse analysts said that given Imperial’s valuation, it did not believe the market was rewarding its current dividend policy and viewed the change as “an opportunistic opportunity” to reduce leverage and buy back shares at depressed levels (The Times £).

Tory leadership favourite Boris Johnson’s visit to Heck Food last week has backfired for the company as social media users took to Twitter using the #BoycottHeck hashtag to suggest they might avoid buying its product in future (Sky News). BoJo was photographed making and packing sausages at the plant. Heck said it did not specifically endorse any candidate. “You have to work with who is going to be in power whatever your political view, dialogue is the only way forward,” it said. Johnson gave his backing for a “Sausage of the North” sculpture overlooking the A1 (M) during his visit.

Prime minister Theresa May is running out of time to publish a “Prevention Green Paper” to consult on measures to improve public health, including new “sin taxes” on tobacco and sugary milkshakes. The plans have been delayed and now campaigners fear the initiatives could be shelved indefinitely. The proposals included a levy on tobacco companies to pay for measures to reduce smoking. A plan to raise the age limit on tobacco sales to 21 has been dropped, reports the Financial Times (£).

AeroFarms has raised $100m to further expand its indoor farming warehouses where vegetables are grown in stacked trays without pesticides, under artificial light, and near consumers. The fundraising will value the US indoor farming company at $500, post-funding (Financial Times £).

Associated British Foods (ABF) chief executive George Weston has paid tribute to Primark founder and chairman Arthur Ryan who has died after a short illness. Weston called him “one of the great giants of retailing” (BBC). Primark chief executive Paul Marchant said Ryan, who was 83, was “a truly gifted retailer and a visionary leader” (CityA.M). The Financial Times (£) recalls how Ryan started out as a menswear buyer, joining ABF from Dunnes. The Telegraph notes his death came just a week after the discount clothing retailer celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first shop opening in Dublin.

SoftBank’s $100bn Vision Fund is in preliminary discussions about buying a shareholding in Spanish online delivery start-up Glovo, which differs from food delivery rivals in that it also takes orders for grocery and pharmaceutical items (Sky News).

Half of all shopping will move online in the next decade, claims Retail Economics, piling more pressure on traditional retailers (The Telegraph)

Nestlé’s planned $10bn (£8bn) sale of its skin health unit to private equity investors EQT and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority faces employee scrutiny under France’s strict labour rules (The Telegraph).

L’Oreal chief executive Jean-Paul-Agon discusses young Chinese people’s big appetite for luxury brands as the beauty manufacture bucks the wider economic slowdown in China (Financial Times £).

The Wuhan city government in China is flexing its Communist muscles by pushing back against Yonghui Superstores attempts to increase its stake in Wuhan Zhongbai Group from just under 30% to 40% in a move that would give the Jardine Matheson-backed retailer a controlling stake (Financial Times £). The move would see the local branch of the State-owned Assets and Administration Commission, which holds 34%, cede overall control. Zhongbai has 748 supermarkets, 302 c-stores and 78 warehouses.

Société Générale can call in the collateral it owns in Rallye, the main parent of highly indebted French retailer Casino, a French commercial court has ruled. The move is a setback to shareholder Jean-Charles Naouri’s attempts to restructure the group (Financial Times £).

More than half of British companies with foreign staff fear they would be hurt by the government’s plans for a post-Brexit immigration system, according to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce and Indeed (Reuters).

A writer for The Guardian, who spends a day with Eastbourne ice-cream van man Tony Roach, wonders whether the seller can survive “the extraordinary decline of the ice-cream van.

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