What the papers said

Grocer, April 19, 2008

THE INDEPENDENT

Marks & Spencer tasted victory lost week in a long-running legal bottle with HM Revenue & Customs over 3.5m [pounds sterling] of overpaid value-added tax on chocolate teacakes. The European Court of Justice ruled in favour of M&S in the dispute, which spanned 12 years and took two trips to the European Court. The legal action arose because chocolate teacakes were classed as biscuits from 1973, when VAT was introduced, until 1994 when HMRC admitted they were cakes.

THE Sun

Cadbury Schweppes admitted its decision not to get involved in this year's Easter egg price war had backfired. It had disappointing sales and lost market share over Easter, reported The Sun. Shares of Cadbury sank 15p to 563.5 after total sales in January, February and March were only up 7% year-on-year.

The Daily Telegraph

Britain is in the grip of a free-range chicken shortage that could last until the end of the year, The Daily Telegraph reported. It said a campaign by celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver end Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall had led to unprecedented demand for free-range chicken. It could be December before there is sufficient supply, warned retailers.

THE TIMES

Carolyn McCall, the chief executive of Guardian Media Group, has resigned from the board of Tesco because of the supermarket's pending libel suit against the company's flagship newspaper. McCall's resignation comes as Tesco said last week it was suing The Guardian over a story that alleged it used offshore companies to avoid paying 1bn [pounds sterling] in taxes.

Daily Mail

After 10 years of soaring business, the tide has started to turn against bottled water, wrote the Daily Mail. It reported sales of bottled water were down 9% in the year to March to 284m [pounds sterling] following a backlash by environmentalists claiming it is wasteful and immoral. UK sales had been growing at more than 6% annually for more than a decade, reaching two billion bottles a year, the paper said.