Surreal Cereal

Two Vita Coco veterans have launched a sugar-free, non-HFSS cereal brand. Called Surreal, it is the brainchild of Kit Gammell and Jac Chetland, formerly Vita Coco’s senior brand manager and sales director. Surreal will debut with four flavours – Cocoa, Peanut Butter, Frosted, and Cinnamon – none of which contain sugar and are touted as offering 13g protein and 5g net carbs per bowl (rsp: £6/210g). “We wanted to make sure the brand had the fun connotations and cues we loved as cereal consumers growing up, but was nutritionally relevant to the adults we become,” said Chetland. “But the number one non-negotiable was it needs to taste good.” It plans to give out 30,000 bowls of Surreal in a sampling campaign.

Surreal

Robinsons Ends Wimbledon Sponsorship

Robinsons squash will no longer sponsor Wimbledon, ending a partnership which stretches back to 1935. The soft drink company confirmed on Friday it will not be renewing its deal with the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Robinsons Lemon Barley Water was first officially introduced at Wimbledon in bottles on the steps of umpires' seats. Britain's Fred Perry and American Helen Moody won the singles titles that year and the squash became the official soft drink provider for the championships. A spokesman for Britvic, which owns several drinks brands including Robinsons, said it was "tremendously proud to have been such a prominent partner to this historic tournament for so many years and the wider role we have played in boosting engagement with the game of tennis in the UK". The company said it was looking to "broadening our summertime reach to beyond the Wimbledon fortnight". Last month, Britvic announced Robinsons as a three-year deal as sponsor of The Hundred, cricket's 100-ball competition, for the 2022 season. Mr Matthias Robinson invented Robinsons Patent Barley and Barley Groats in 1823, with the fruit drink beginning its life as a powder.

Robinsons Sponsorship

Primark Trial Click & Collect

 

Primark will trial a click-and-collect service in the UK, in the budget fashion chain’s first significant move into online shopping as it confirmed price rises were on the way. The high street retailer will launch the trial at 25 stores in the north-west of England by the end of the year, but said it would only cover children’s clothing and accessories, as the company – owned by Associated British Foods (ABF) – tries to draw more families into its stores. Customers will be able to order from about 2,000 items online – only 40% of the range – including nursery furniture, clothing multipacks and licensed products, such as Disney T-shirts, that the retailer said would be “particularly attractive for our customers who do not regularly shop in our larger stores”. He said shoppers would be able to immediately try on items they had ordered online in designated collection areas and pick up additional items from the store if they wished. Click-and-collect, and in-store returns, will be offered free as part of the trial.

Primark Click & Collect

Asos Shoppers Returning More

Asos has warned that full-year profits will fall sharply as cash-strapped customers return more items to the online clothing retailer. The company said that while sales rose in the three months to the end of May, profit had been hit by "inflationary pressures on consumers". It is far below Asos's prediction in January when it said annual profit was set to reach between £110m and £140m, and a sharp decline from the previous financial year when it hit £193.6m. Asos said the higher rate of returns was adding to warehouse and delivery costs. It said profit would be impacted if it had to cut prices to shift goods. Asos's share price plunged by 15% to a 12-year low of 987.5p following the update. UK shoppers buy more clothes per person than those in any other country in Europe, according to MPs. And young people top that list of UK shoppers. A recent survey by environmental charity Hubbub found that more than two-fifths of 16 to 24-year-olds buy clothes online at least once a week, compared to 13% on average for other age groups.

End of Fast Fashion

 

Batterygate

Millions of iPhone users could be eligible for payouts, following the launch of a legal claim accusing Apple of secretly slowing the performance of older phones. Justin Gutmann alleges the company misled users over an upgrade that it said would enhance performance but, in fact, slowed phones down. He is seeking damages of around £768m for up to 25 million UK iPhone users. Apple says it has "never" intentionally shortened the life of its products. The claim, which has been filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleges Apple slowed down the performance of older iPhones, in a process known as "throttling", in order to avoid expensive recalls or repairs. The models covered by the claim are the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X models. It is an opt-out claim, which means customers will not need to actively join the case to seek damages.

Batterygate

 

Revlon files for Bankruptcy

Cosmetics maker Revlon has filed for bankruptcy in the US, as it says supply chain disruptions have driven up the cost of raw materials for its products. The 90-year-old firm says it has also been struggling with supplier payments, inflation and labour shortages. The company says it expects to receive $575m (£466.6m) from its existing lenders to support day-to-day operations. In a court filing, the company said that supply chain disruptions had prompted intense competition for the ingredients used in its cosmetics. It added that suppliers have also asked to be paid for orders upfront. This has caused "shortages of necessary ingredients across the company's portfolio," Revlon's chief restructuring officer Robert Caruso said in the filing. "For example, one tube of Revlon lipstick requires 35 to 40 raw materials and component parts, each of which is critical to bringing the product to market," he added. As well as the Revlon brand, the company also owns well-known names such as Elizabeth Arden, Almay and Cutex, and fragrances fronted by Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. In recent years it has faced increased competition from new brands like those backed by celebrities such as Kylie Jenner's Kylie Cosmetics and Rihanna's Fenty Beauty. Revlon was formed in 1932 by brothers Charles and Joseph Revson and Charles Lachman and started selling nail polish soon after. By the mid-1950s it had become an international brand. It was bought by billionaire businessman Ronald Perelman's MacAndrews & Forbes in 1985. Revlon now sells its products in more than 150 countries.

Revlon Bankruptcy

TikTok Toxic Culture

TikTok is investigating claims of an aggressive work culture after a senior executive at the firm allegedly said he "didn't believe" in maternity leave. It follows a probe by the newspaper which alleged a staff exodus from TikTok's London offices. According to the FT, the launch of TikTok Shop - the firm's livestream shopping feature - in the UK prompted a number of staff to leave and complaints about an aggressive culture that goes against typical working practices in Britain. The newspaper also carried reports of long working hours, with members of the ecommerce team saying they are expected to regularly work more than 12 hours a day. The Financial Times (FT) reported that Joshua Ma has now stepped back and been replaced in his role leading the social media firm's UK ecommerce team.

Tik Tok Culture

Russia Unveils Alternative McDonalds

Fast food giant McDonald's pulled out of Russia in protest at the invasion of Ukraine and sold its restaurants here - more than 800 - to Russian businessman Alexander Govor. Today the first rebranded restaurants are reopening in Moscow. There's a new name: "Vkusno i Tochka", which translates as "Tasty and that's it". Gone are the Golden Arches, replaced by a stylised letter M, made out of two French fries, and a dot (or, perhaps, a burger?) Gone are the Big Mac and McFlurry. But the new owners hope customers won't notice too many differences. They held a press conference in the flagship restaurant on Pushkin Square, where the very first Moscow McDonald's opened 32 years ago. The new company says the burgers' composition has not changed and the McDonald's equipment remains. Russia and Ukraine accounted for about 9% of McDonald's global sales last year. Starbucks, Coca Cola, Levi's and Apple are among the international brands that have left Russia or suspended sales here since the 24 February invasion of Ukraine.

McDonalds in Rusia

Ice Cream Van of the Year

An ice cream maker in Northumberland, who developed a love for her work from spending idyllic childhood summers helping to serve customers from her parents' ice cream van, is celebrating sweet success at the national sector awards. Zoe Philipson, from Tyne Valley Ices in Hexham, whipped the competition to win what's described as the biggest prize in the industry - the title of Ice Cream Van of the Year. And, after years of hard work in the family business, the award "means the world" she says. She came out on top for her exceptional customer service and dedication to both the industry and her local community. Zoe took over the company after joining full-time on finishing her A levels just over 10 years ago and it proved a natural next step for her to indulge her ice passion. Now Tyne Valley Ices has its weekly rounds; regular pop-ups at caravan parks, playgrounds and care homes and also attends corporate, charity, school, village and wedding events throughout Northumberland.

Hexham Tyne Valley Ices

4-day Working Week

 

Thousands of UK workers are starting a four-day week trial from Monday. About 70 companies are taking part in what is thought to be the world's biggest pilot scheme into the working pattern over the next six months. The experiment has been organised by a group campaigning for a shorter working week, but for no loss in wages. During the trial, employees will get 100% pay for 80% of the hours they would usually work, with the aim of being more productive. Academics from Oxford and Cambridge universities, as well experts at Boston College in the US, will manage the experiment in partnership with the think tank Autonomy. Companies ranging from office-based software developers and recruitment firms to charities and a local fish and chip shop are taking part.

Working Week

Frasers buy Missguided

 

Sports Direct owner Frasers Group has bought Missguided for £20m, after the online fashion retailer collapsed into administration. Chief executive Michael Murray said the group, which also owns House of Fraser, was "delighted to secure a long-term future" for the fast fashion company. Some 87 staff will be made redundant and 147 are expected to move to Frasers Group, the BBC understands. Missguided has suffered from supply chain problems, rising freight costs and increasing competition from rivals. Suppliers had accused the business of leaving millions of pounds of debts unpaid. The Manchester-based business was founded by Nitin Passi in 2009 and grew to become one of the UK's biggest online fashion players. But in the last few years it has struggled to make a profit. Missguided customers have been tweeting the company to complain that orders have not arrived, returns not processed and refunds not received. The brand had also faced increased competition from fast fashion rivals such as Boohoo and Shein, a Chinese company which saw its popularity surge during the pandemic. Missguided will become the latest troubled brand to join the group, after it snapped up Game, Evans Cycles, Jack Wills and Sofa.com in similar deals.

Missguided Sold

Dyson Robots

Dyson is moving beyond vacuum cleaners and hand driers and will try to develop robots capable of helping with household chores. The company has announced plans to create a major robotics centre at its facility at Hullavington Airfield, in Wiltshire, that will work on new types of domestic robot. The site will be home to 250 robotics engineers. Dyson already produces robotic vacuum cleaners. Dyson says it is investing heavily in developing new technology - and half of the 2,000 people to have joined the company this year are engineers, scientists or coders. It is also hiring robotics engineers across disciplines including computer vision, machine learning, sensors and "mechatronics". Dyson has been attempting to broaden the range of products it offers.

 Dyson Robots