Sainsbury's top potato buyer has been arrested by police investigating an alleged £3m fraud. The News of the World said detectives have questioned John Maylam over allegations that he took "backhander" payments from potato company Greenvale, which supplies more than half of Sainsbury's potatoes.

Thirty senior executives at Marks & Spencer have been axed as part of a radical shake-up at the retailer, the Sunday Express reported. The cuts effectively removed a layer of management at the retailer, the paper said, adding that the redundancies were likely to cost the company up to £4m.

Tesco has made business development director Michael Fleming chief executive of its operations in Japan, suggesting it is looking to expand more aggressively there. Tesco, which announced plans to open Tesco Express-style stores in Japan a year ago, has rolled out at least 30 outlets over the past year, taking it to an estimated 150 stores, said the FT.

Cadbury Schweppes' plan to demerge its US fizzy drinks business will cost the group between £1bn and £1.2bn, The Guardian has reported. The demerger would create a taxable gain and transaction cost giving a one-off £300m hit, say analysts. A further £370m of costs would arise from unwinding tax synergies, and the refinancing would bring with it an increased cost of debt of about £17.5m a year, the equivalent to a one-off hit of £170m. 

Tesco has started its biggest round of cost cutting in five years, with its property department in the firing line, according to the Mail. Property department bosses are said to have be told to cut staff numbers by 10%. Other cutbacks include travel and hotel accommodation costs. The move suggested the retailer was worried about tougher times ahead as consumers tightened their purse strings, the paper said.