Italy’s egg producers are celebrating increasing exports to Britain and restocking empty UK supermarket shelves as British poultry farmers accuse “tightfisted” retailers of driving them out of the market (The Times £).
Morrisons has been accused of using excessive force at one of its abattoirs after undercover filming revealed workers routinely hitting pigs and a lame animal being kicked (The Times £).
A secret vote looms for Sharon White in fight over John Lewis’s future, The Sunday Times (£) reveals. Amid losses and plans to slash costs, an upcoming vote of confidence on the chairwoman could pile on the pressure, the paper writes.
In what could be a reckoning for Dame Sharon White, a group of partners have requested that the vote be held in secret on Tuesday which will determine their opinion of John Lewis’s strategy and direction (The Telegraph).
Tomorrow and Wednesday, 60 employee representatives will have their say on White’s role as chairman during a council meeting, including two votes on her leadership (The Mail).
There is a business editorial in this morning’s Guardian written in defence of UK supermarkets, concluding they “probably aren’t profiteering”. “Sainsbury’s and Tesco figures show profit levels aren’t eye-watering, but historically normal.”
UK consumer spending grew at about half the pace of inflation in April as fast-rising prices continued to suppress demand, even as the leisure sector saw some “renewed momentum”, according to new sector data (The Financial Times £).
Retail sales increased 5.2% on a like-for-like basis in April compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data from the British Retail Consortium and the consultancy KPMG (The Guardian).
Shoppers are turning to food that is just about to go off as they try to beat soaring inflation, new figures show, raising fears that people’s health could be at risk (The Telegraph).
The Bank of England is set to raise interest rates to their highest level since 2008 on Thursday in the wake of official data last month that showed inflation remained stubbornly high (The Financial Times £).
An editorial by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown in The Observer is headlined: “When Amazon and Tesco join a ‘coalition of compassion’, you know the welfare state is failing.” He writes that after last month’s “punishing rise” in food price inflation, telecoms, council tax and other prices, hardship is “not diminishing but increasing”. “For sadly, under this government, coronation Britain is also a divided Britain, a country in which, with every month that passes, the poor are becoming even poorer.”
Rapid grocery delivery firms are preparing to move hundreds of couriers paid by the hour on to insecure gig-economy contracts as the threat of tougher regulations has receded, industry sources have warned (The Observer).
Emma Fox, chief executive of Berry Bros & Rudd, does not believe the hype of non-alcoholic drinks, according to an interview with The Telegraph.The boss of the King’s drinks supplier says she does not stock any alcohol-free wines because they do not taste good enough.
The Times (£) asks ‘how much ultra-processed food is in your basket?’ in a feature looking at Dr Chris van Tulleken’s recent book.
The chief executive of Anheuser-Busch InBev has blamed misinformation on social media for stoking a conservative consumer boycott of Bud Light after the best-selling US beer was promoted by a transgender influencer (The Financial Times £).
The Observer carries a report looking into the treatment of drivers at haulier used by major retailers.
No comments yet