Ashley Armstrong 09 Apr 2014 The Telegraph UK MARS, the maker of M&Ms and Snickers, yesterday spent $2.9bn (£1.7bn) buying pet food brands Eukanuba, IAMS and Natura from consumer giant Procter & Gamble. The trio of brands will be added to Mars’ existing pet food business which includes Whiskas cat food and Pedigree Chum. The deal is the biggest in five years for the Mars bar maker since its $23bn Wrigleys gum deal in 2008. The US conglomerate is buying the rights to the brands in North America, Latin America and other selected countries which account for 80pc of Procter & Gamble’s global pet food sales in total. Procter & Gamble, which also owns Gilette razors and Fairy Liquid, said that it could sell its European pet care business to different buyers. The company said it “is developing alternate plans to sell its Pet Care business in these markets”. Analysts…

Graham Ruddick 10 Apr 2014 The Telegraph UK Tesco’s scale remains an advantage, yet the company seems reluctant to use it Tesco’s share price is at the lowest level in a decade, Sainsbury’s is the most shorted stock in the FTSE 100 and Morrisons has warned that profits in 2014 will be half what they were last year. Britain’s biggest supermarkets are facing a crisis. This challenge to the “big four”, which also includes Asda, has not suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It is the result of the discounters Aldi and Lidl growing in confidence over the past few years, the leading grocers focusing on protecting their bottom line rather than growing sales, a lack of trust in big business since the financial crisis and the loss of highly-rated management such as Sir Terry Leahy. According to Moody’s, over the past four years, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons have lost…

Ruki Sayid Apr 07, 2014 The billionaire Topshop boss, who bought BHS for £200million in 2000, has pledged to be 10% cheaper on food and drink than the major players High street tycoon Sir Philip Green has vowed to take on the big four supermarkets by launching 50 discount BHS Food shops. The billionaire Topshop boss has pledged to be 10% cheaper on food and drink than the major players. Sir Philip, who bought BHS for £200million in 2000, said: “There’s no point in opening up and getting torn apart because we haven’t got competitive prices. “We know what we’re going into – the most competitive landscape for some time. “If you don’t buy a ticket, you can’t win the lottery.” We put his price pledge to the test at the first BHS Food store in Staines, Surrey, and it proved the cheapest. Our shopping list included 18 like-for-like staple…

EWIN HANNAN APRIL 08, 2014 THE AUSTRALIAN A QUEENSLAND restaurant worker who was told he would be sacked on his 65th birthday has been awarded $10,000 in compensation and the restaurant’s operators fined almost $30,000. The case is the first time the federal workplace watchdog, the Fair Work Ombudsman, has taken legal action against a company on the basis of age discrimination. After raising questions about his pay, Cheng Peng Lee was informed by his employers that it was company policy to sack workers once they reached retirement age. The company, Theravanish Investments, operate Thai restaurants on the Gold Coast. A letter from the company accountant said it was “the policy of the company that we do not employ any staff that attain the retirement age, which in your case is 65 years”. Mr Lee, 64-years-old at the time, had worked full time for the company for 15 years until…

Yolanda Redrup 08 April 2014 SmartCompany Australian franchise Pie Face is embroiled in a legal battle with a former franchisee, who is alleging the pie chain was misleading and deceptive when communicating the expected returns for the franchise stores. Former franchisee Prit Dutta launched court action in February this year claiming the earnings information provided by Pie Face prior to his purchase of two stores was “not based on reasonable grounds and was incomplete”. Dutta told SmartCompany he’s seeking $800,000 in damages. Dutta, who once owned two Pie Face stores in central Brisbane, says he’s not the only one to have been allegedly misled by Pie Face. “Basically in short, six out of seven Brisbane CBD store franchisees have faced financial losses or store shut down. The Albert Mall store has seen it twice,” he says. “The story is the same in Sydney and Melbourne. Too many stores are located…