Ocado invests £10m into self-driving tech startup Wayve October 6, 2021 Self-driving tech startup Wayve’s total funding raised has hit $60m following an investment from grocer Ocado. Ocado is investing £10m ($13.6m) in a partnership with Wayve that will develop autonomous grocery deliveries. An autonomous delivery trial will involve a number of Ocado delivery vans on busy London routes – with a human driver to oversee [...]
Food industry: Government must act to tackle cost of living crisis as prices spike March 22, 2022 A food industry leader has called on the government to intervene to ease supply chain pressures on food firms as a cost of living crisis looms. Food and Drink Federation boss Karen Betts has urged ministers to act to help millions of households as they face rising food and energy prices this spring. Measures urged [...]
Petrol prices drop to lowest levels since November after record-breaking surge January 12, 2022 Petrol prices have fallen to their lowest levels since November, with the costs of both unleaded petrol and diesel dropping over the past week.
Shop price inflation hits highest rate in more than a decade March 2, 2022 Shop price annual inflation surged to the highest rate since November 2011 last month, as households’ concerns about the cost of living increases. The rate hit 1.8 per cent in February, an increase from 1.5 per cent in January, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and NielsenIQ. Non-food inflation surged to 1.3 per cent [...]
Pepco CEO to step down this year due to health reasons January 5, 2022 Poundland owner Pepco has announced its chief executive officer Andy Bond will step down later this year due to health reasons. Pepco Group, which owns discount retailer brands including PEPCO, Poundland and Dealz, said Bond will step down at the end of March. He is expected to stay on the board as an advisor until [...]
Private equity firms readying bids for Boots after owner puts chain on sale for £7bn January 16, 2022 Private equity firms are readying to enter the auction for high street chemist Boots after its American owner Walgreens Boots Alliance put the chain on the market for £7bn.
Waitrose makes headway into home delivery through Mindful Chef partnership December 29, 2021 Supermarket Waitrose has partnered up with Mindful Chef, a British company that delivers recipes and ingredients to people’s homes, in a bid to capitalise on the trend propelled during the pandemic. The news comes as the online food delivery industry has become increasingly popular during the pandemic, and just weeks after Asda announced its own [...]
New York-based Apollo Global Management mulls buyout of Marks & Spencer November 22, 2021 Private equity giant Apollo Global Management is reportedly mulling a buyout of UK high street staple Marks & Spencer.
The supermarket wars are in full swing and Tesco is beefing up to fight its turf December 1, 2021 I last saw Sir Terry Leahy in 2013, two years after his messy divorce from Tesco. He agreed to a chat about retail on the condition he wouldn’t have to talk about the supermarket juggernaut he helped to create or his successor, Philip Clarke, who’d begun to question the state of the business he’d been [...]
Shoppers opted for premium products this Christmas as grocery inflation hit 3.5 per cent January 5, 2022 Grocery sales hit £11.7bn over the Christmas period, as shoppers were keen to make the most of the festive period after Covid restrictions hampered celebrations last year. Shoppers spent record amounts on supermarkets’ premium own brand products, with £627m spent on pricier items over the four weeks to 26 December. This was an increase of [...]