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William Morrison Supermarkets Plc has announced that revenue growth slowed over the last two months as record rainfall deterred shoppers. June 2007 was the UK's wettest June since records began. A year ago, record heat and the football World Cup, prompted Morrisons shoppers to buy more soft drinks, ice cream and beer.
The row over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko may see commerce suffer as Cold War battles return. About 400 UK companies operate in Russia, including household names such as Marks & Spencer. Food and drinks company Cadbury Schweppes' factory in Russia is its largest outside the UK. Scottish & Newcastle has a stake in Baltika, Russia's largest brewer.
British food manufacturers waste £3.2bn per year in profit because of failure to control losses and poor management, according to Plimsoll Publishing. A survey of 500 companies conducted by the firm claims a quarter are making a loss, 14% are bleeding cash for the second year running and 6% made less than a 3% return on investment.
On 1 July, EU regulations on nutrition and health came into force, meaning that food health claims made on certain products must be backed by scientific evidence. Products claiming to be so-called ‘superfoods’, including blueberries and spinach, will be forbidden from describing themselves as such - unless the claim can be proved. UK retailers have expressed concern that imminent EU rules on food health claims could hold back national health campaigns and reduce innovation in the sector.
Associated British Foods has announced plans to build a £200m biofuel plant in the UK. The company, which owns grocery brands including Twinings tea and Kingsmill bread, will hold a 45% stake in the venture. BP will hold an identical stake with US chemicals group DuPont holding the remaining 10%. The plant will produce bioethanol at BP's chemicals site at Saltend, Hull. The plant will produce 330,000 tonnes of bioethanol a year. The move is ABF's latest venture into bioethanol production. The company's British Sugar arm has also moved to build a plant in Norfolk.
Premier Foods, the UK's largest food group, is to close six of its sites in the country. The company, which makes brands including Branston's pickle and the Quorn vegetarian range, is to wield the axe after a business review in the aftermath of last year's acquisition of RHM. Premier aims to close the six sites - two in Manchester and one each in Bristol, Herefordshire, Cheshire and Berkshire - by 2009. The company said it would invest "significantly" in the other five sites.
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