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