Cricketing star Ben Stokes takes stake in alcohol-free Cleanco May 18, 2025 Cricketing star Ben Stokes OBE has taken a stake in reality tv star Spencer Matthews’ alcohol-free spirits brand Cleanco. Stokes partnership with the firm comes as part of a $5m fundraising round for the brand as it hopes for its first year of cash-flow positivty. Cleanco is also gearing up for global expansion with ambitions [...]
Tesco and Waitrose back King’s challenge to tackle hunger issues May 18, 2025 Four UK supermarkets are launching a joint campaign to tackle hunger, following a challenge from the King. Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Waitrose will take part in the Let’s Make A Meal Of It campaign, which encourages customers to donate to charity FareShare either online or by rounding up their bills in store. The campaign is [...]
Libby’s Naked Wines Diary: How to celebrate Steak Day right April 24, 2025 Steak. Our nation loves it. So much so that Tesco reported searches for ‘Wagyu” have gone up 87 per cent since last year on tesco.com. With its prestige and price, when it comes to cuts of meat, this is essentially the Grand Cru of beef. Taking this as a call to action, Tesco has launched [...]
Welsh wine is no April Fools joke – and it’s delicious April 1, 2025 Firstly, I promise this isn’t an April Fool. Welsh wine is a real thing. Historically of course, they have always liked a drink. Welsh bards, poets and wordsmiths have dedicated their talent to the power and beauty of wine. As far back at the 6th century there are references to mead being drunk by warriors [...]
Greencore: M&S sandwich supplier roars ahead amid takeover battle April 1, 2025 Convenience food manufacturer Greencore told markets this morning that it expects profit to come in ahead of expectations for the second quarter, underpinned by “on-going operational and commercial excellence initiatives and a continued focus on cost control”, it said. Convenience food company Greencore supplies all major supermarkets in the UK, including M&S, with chilled prepared [...]
John Lewis scraps staff bonus again despite tripling profit March 13, 2025 The John Lewis Partnership has scrapped its staff bonus for the third year in a row despite a near-tripling in profit. The company, which owns both John Lewis and Waitrose, told markets this morning that profit before tax increased from £42m to £126m over the 52 weeks to 25 January. Overall sales rose three per [...]
Gary Neville signs deal with cult London coffee brand Grind March 10, 2025 Cult coffee brand Grind is to open its first base outside London after signing a deal with Gary Neville to take space at his landmark city centre development in Manchester. Grind has agreed to take over 3,000 sq ft at No.1 St Michael’s scheme which is being led by Neville’s Relentless Developments. Grind joins the [...]
The Co-op admits blocking rivals from opening competing stores March 5, 2025 The Co-op has become the latest major UK supermarket to fall foul of a targeted campaign by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to stop the use of ‘unlawful land agreements’ in grocery retailing. The group has admitted to 107 breaches of an order to stop supermarkets imposing restrictions that block rivals from opening competing [...]
International Women’s Day: The future of women in wine March 3, 2025 This International Women’s Day, I caught up with Queena Wong, a wine enthusiast who is helping to reshape the industry for the better Queena Wong has become a controversial character in wine after spearheading the first UK Women in Wine Survey. According to marketing research agency PROOF Insight, 78 per cent of the women who [...]
Who watches the Watches? February 19, 2025 As a newly minted Picture Editor and thus part of the management team of a then-popular left-wing national newspaper, I sat in on a discussion about why the poor ate so badly. Having only recently landed the job and as keen as mustard – and oh so naive – my feet were still planted firmly [...]