The news that supermarkets will be tasked with the fairly hefty challenge of reducing the UK’s obesity problem dominated the papers yesterday, as the announcement from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) filtered across the nation.
Supermarkets will be legally required to encourage shoppers to buy healthier food and drink, as outlined here in The Grocer’s version of the story, with those that fail to increase their ‘healthier food’ sales at risk of being fined by the government.
Predictably, while some welcomed the move as a necessary step for the good of public health, others were less delighted, with many saying the proposals were bringing the UK one step closer to being a ’nanny state’. Health secretary Wes Streeting firmly denied this, joining with environment secretary Steve Reed for an exclusive piece in The Grocer, explaining why the UK food industry must work together, for the health of the country.
To make sure his plans landed, Streeting did the rounds on Sunday morning, telling the BBC that the new strategy was “radically different” from the previous government’s “nanny stated approach” of dictating prices and marketing.
He also spoke with Sky News, where he told Trevor Phillips the government was taking a “world-first” approach to make the most of the data supermarkets already collect about the ”nutritional value of the average shop”.
“We’re going to work with them to reduce the amount of unhealthy food in trolleys and baskets by setting targets on the healthy value of your shopping trolleys and baskets,” he added.
Excitingly, Asda is being pitched against high street darling Primark by The Telegraph in a piece which reveals that Allan Leighton plans for the supermarket to leapfrog Britain’s biggest clothing retailer, as part of his ambitious turnaround plan.
Around 100 Asda branches will be making the George brand more prominent in-store, in a direct response to rising demand for fashionable, affordable clothing.
Managing director of George, Liz Evans, is hoping the investment in Asda’s turnaround will help George overtake Primark as the largest seller of clothes by volume in the UK, up from its current position of third (Next is in the second spot).
“That’s the long-term goal,” she said. “We’re number one on volume when it comes to kids, but why can’t it be possible overall?”
Bacardi has brushed off the decline in alcohol consumption in an interview with the Financial Times, with Ignacio Del Valle, Bacardi’s head of Europe and Latin America, insisting it has no plans to pursue asset disposals. Del Valle said he did not believe the alcohol industry was in structural decline.
“Consumer trends do change but [the] data that is out there does not validate that we are adjusting [to anything] other than a cycle,” he told the paper.
In unrelated news, Reuters has reported this morning on UK business confidence hitting its highest level since 2015, as companies became more optimistic about the outlook for the economy.
The data from Lloyds Bank revealed that a rise in hiring intentions (some 60% of firms expect to increase their staffing levels this year) suggested employers were starting to prepare for future growth.
The papers have not picked up on the extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees over the weekend, despite The Times teasing the announcement on Thursday, with a piece focusing on the additional cost to consumers.
It said the net-zero “glass tax” will raise the prices of bottles of wine and beer as retailers and manufacturers have to pay for the disposal of packaging to encourage them to use more environmentally-friendly materials – but hasn’t followed up with the data, which was released on Friday.
The Grocer outlined the new fee structure here.
Investors will be grilling Marks & Spencer bosses publicly today for the first time since its cyber attack, says This Is Money. Chief executive Stuart Machin and chairman Archie Norman will be talking to shareholders at today’s AGM, where questions are likely to be raised over the attack, estimated to have cost the chain around £300m.
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