Media Bites 23 June: Morrisons WFH changes, Sainsbury’s sunshine sales boost, cancer warning labels for booze?

The Telegraph reports Morrisons has ordered staff working in its head office “back to their desks five days a week”. Previously, staff were required to work 37.5 hours over four-and-a-half days under a pilot that kicked off in 2020. However, the supermarket insisted its flexible working policy remained in place, but employees would no longer be able to work a four-and-a-half day week. It comes as bosses seek to revive the fortunes of the supermarket, which has lost customers to rivals like Aldi.

Packaged beer, wine and spirits should carry warnings that alcohol causes cancer, according to an alliance of doctors, charities and public health experts (The Guardian). Dozens of medical health organisations have written to the prime minster urging him to compel suppliers to include such warnings to would tackle “shockingly low” public awareness of the harm caused by booze. The labels should be “bold and unambiguous”, said the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), which coordinated the letter. Industry body the Portman Group, however, said blanket cancer warning labels were not a proportionate response and could create “unnecessary anxiety” for consumers.

An early start to summer is expected to provide a fillip to quarterly sales at Sainsbury’s, despite intense competition in the sector (The Times). Sales at Britain’s second-largest supermarket rose 4.7% in the 12 weeks to 18 May, according to data from Kantar. Products including icre cream, bags of ice, barbecue meats and rosé wine surged between 8-14 June amid balmy weather, the data showed. Sainsbury’s is due to report its first quarterly sales of in the 2025-26 fiscal year on 1 July.

The majority of children will be overweight or obese in nine areas of England by 2035, according to modelling by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), seen by the Guardian. The projections show more than half of 10- and 11-year-olds in areas including Blackpool, Knowsley, Sandwell, Barking and Dagenham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Newham, Luton, and Nottingham will be classed as overweight or obese in a decade. William Roberts, the chief executive of the RSPH, said the causes of the crisis were “wide-ranging” but junk food and low levels of activity were “major factors”.

Alan Bates, the leading campaigner for victims of the Horizon Post Office scandal, has called for those responsible for the wrongful convictions of sub postmasters in to be “brought to account” (Sky News). It comes after Sky News unearthed a report showing Post Office lawyers knew of faults in the software nearly three decades ago. Sky News’ investigation showed “yet another failure of government oversight; another failure of the Post Office board to ensure [the] Post Office recruited senior people competent of bringing in IT systems” said Bates. Management was “out of touch with what was going on within its organisation,” he added.

Luxury department store Harrods has asked the High Court to appoint special executors to the estate of its late former owner Mohamed Al Fayed, in an attempt to open up another route for compensation for alleged victims of his sexual abuse (The Financial Times). “This application potentially opens a route for survivors who have no connection to Harrods – and so are not eligible to apply to the Harrods Redress Scheme – to make claims directly against the Fayed estate,” Harrods said in a statement.

Ocado has reported that sales for elderflower liqueur, a key ingredient in the Hugo spritz cocktail, are by 107% year on year (The Times). Younger drinkers are said to be turning to the Hugo spritz – typically made with elderflower liqueur, prosecco and soda water and garnished with mint and lemon – as a lower abv alternative to Aperol. As ever, TikTok appears to be driving the trend, with influencers declaring 2025 to be a “Hugo spritz summer”.