Heineken on Wednesday announced that Glenn Caton will succeed Soren Hagh as president, Europe from 1 January 2024.
Caton joins Heineken from Mondelez International, where he is currently senior vice president, global commerce and was previously president for South-East Asia and president of Northern Europe.
He will join the Heineken executive team reporting to Dolf van den Brink, chairman and chief executive.
Soren Hagh will leave Heineken on 31 December.
“I would like to express my gratitude to Soren for his significant contributions to Heineken over the last ten years,” van den Brink said.
“Soren has driven our EverGreen transformation in Europe investing in our premium portfolio and driving innovation at scale, whilst also building a future-fit organisation by leveraging our supply chain network and digitally transforming our route-to-consumer. He has been a valuable member of the Executive Team and I wish him every success in his future ventures.”
Caton joins Heineken after 10 years at Mondelez, and at his current role, he has been responsible for channel strategy; revenue growth management; customer partnerships and sales excellence.
He started at Mondelez in 2013 as VP for chocolate, Northern Europe before becoming president, Northern Europe in 2016, where he delivered strong top and bottom-line growth through a focus on world-class manufacturing, commercial excellence and a refreshed brand marketing.
He moved to Singapore in 2018, initially as category president for chocolate across Asia, Middle East and Africa before becoming business unit president for South-East Asia where he successfully steered the business through the Covid pandemic, driving growth, productivity and strengthening the organisation.
Glenn started his career at P&G, where he worked for nine years based in the UK and Geneva in roles across sales and marketing. He then moved into the wine sector as senior marketing director for Europe at E&J Gallo in 2003.
In 2006 he joined Hiscox Insurance as UK sales & marketing director and subsequently managing director of the UK direct to consumer business based in London; where he led the shift from a B2B business to a more consumer-orientated, brand-led business. After four years he returned to the wine sector as UK managing director of Direct Wines, the largest consumer wine business in the world.
“Glenn brings great experience of operating across different sectors, regions and cultures,” van den Brink commented.
“He has driven growth and innovation and delivered consistently strong results leading businesses in FMCG, financial services, direct-to-consumer and retail. He is an entrepreneurial, highly commercial, and creative leader who has demonstrated a clear ability to build highly motivated teams that drive for results and deliver change. He will be a great addition to Heineken and our executive team, and I very much look forward to working with him.”
In a significant escalation in backlash to plans announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, farmers are threatening to target ports and disrupt supermarket supply chains to protest against Labour tax rises, states a recent report, claiming that there are plans to withhold produce and livestock in a bid to trigger food shortages,
The Chancellor placed a 20 per cent inheritance tax on farmers’ assets worth more than £1 million in her first Budget. Previously, tax breaks designed to allow family farms to pass down the generations were exempt from the divisive 40 per cent duty.
According to The Telegraph, some farmers are now openly discussing plans to take a more radical course of action. The discussions are understood to be taking place among farmers who have previously organised tractor “go-slows” on roads as well as protests in February which saw 5,000 farmers gather at the Senedd to voice dissent over environmental targets.
“They will block every port in the UK if they have to,” the report quoted an insider. “[This] could be a possibility to slow down the supply in the supermarket. The Government and supermarkets need to realise the control we have as farmers. The good thing with that is you have farmers everywhere so you can cover all the ports.”
Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers Union (NFU), said that his members felt “betrayed” by Labour government.
“I had a meeting with farmers this week and they are absolutely irate,” he said. “If they hadn’t said they weren’t going to do it, there would still be dismay but not the sense of betrayal. Anyone living longer than five years is thinking, will a future government do something different? The leader of the opposition has said they will overturn it.”
The NFU has organised a lobbying event later this month in Parliament where members will hold meetings with their MPs – but the union declined to back a mass demonstration in the capital on the same day, telling its members that unless they have registered for the parliamentary event they should stay away.
There are also reports of plans for a co-ordinated “sewage strike” in a move that risks causing chaos for water-treatment companies and creating a mountain of waste.
Clive Bailye, the founder of the Farming Forum, the UK’s biggest agricultural online forum, said that some farmers were looking at other actions, “from not taking sewage sludge to not letting food leave the farm or sending livestock to market”.
“I can see produce being withheld.”
He said that although they were “very worried about going to prison” he felt his position as founder of the Farming Forum put him in a strong position to help, adding: “We know we need to do something but we are not sure what it will look like yet. But I’ve got thousands of messages from farmers asking me how, when, where.”
A government spokesman said, “With public services crumbling, a £22 billion fiscal hole inherited from the previous government and 40 per cent of Agricultural Property Relief going to the 7 per cent of the wealthiest claimants, we made a difficult decision to ensure the relief is fiscally sustainable.
“Around 500 claims each year will be impacted and farm-owning couples can pass on up to £3 million without paying any inheritance tax – this is a fair and balanced approach.”
Post Offices handled £3.69 billion in cash deposits and withdrawals in October, reaching the highest monthly amount since July when a record £3.78 billion was handled over the counter, shows new figures released today (11).
Personal cash deposits totaled £1.52 billion which was up 2.2 per cent month-on-month (£1.49 billion, September 2024) and up almost 15 per cent year-on-year (£1.32 billion, October 2023). October 2024 was only the third time personal cash deposits have exceeded £1.5 billion in a single month (previously July and August 2024).
Business cash deposits totaled £1.21 billion which was up almost 4% month-on-month (£1.16 billion, September 2024) and up almost 8% year-on-year (£1.12 billion, October 2023). October 2024 was only the second time business cash deposits have exceeded £1.2 billion in a single month (previously July 2024).
Personal cash withdrawals totalled £928 million which was up 6.6% month-on-month (£871 million, September 2024) and up 13% year-on-year (£821 million, October 2023). The amount withdrawn over the counter was just below the record amount withdrawn in a single month set in December 2023 (£930 million).
Ross Borkett, Post Office Banking Director, said, “Our figures indicate that demand for cash is as strong as ever as people rely on cash to budget, particularly in the run-up to Christmas, and businesses rely on it to survive a volatile trading environment. Postmasters and their teams play a vital role in supporting small businesses to trade by providing a convenient and secure location to deposit their cash takings with many branches open long hours and some at weekends.”
Post Office Cash tracker data – October 2024
Cash deposits value (business & personal)
MOM%
YOY%
Cash withdrawals value (business & personal)
MOM%
YOY%
Total cash deposits & withdrawal value for October 2024
As at 16 October, 88 hubs have been opened in partnership between Cash Access UK and the Post Office. 168 Banking Hubs have now been announced by LINK with further openings planned for later this year.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves' budget is expected to prove to be “a big burden for the retail industry to carry”, Asda chair Stuart Rose has said, warning that the “consequences” of the budget will lead to some price increases.
Rose said the increase in employers’ NICs and changes to tax thresholds would have “consequences” and meant it could not rule out some price increases.
“If you get presented with a bill unexpectedly for around £100m, even if you’re a business as big as us, that takes some digestion. So we’re looking at the consequences of that, but you cannot rule out the fact there will be some inflation,” Lord Rose told the Guardian.
Rose added that the changes in last week’s budget were “a big burden for the retail industry to carry” and meant that Asda would “have to look hard at every piece of expenditure”, including the annual pay increase for staff, and may limit how many workers it hires.
“We’ve seen an increase in national minimum wage,” he added. “We want to attract good staff, but we have to look very, very hard to affordability.”
It comes a day after Asda released its gloomy numbers the slide in total revenues, excluding fuel, by 2.5 per cent to £5.3bn in the three months to the end of September, while like-for-like sales were 4.8 per cent lower than the same quarter in 2023.
Asda’s warning about the cost of budget measures comes only days after it announced hundreds of head office job cuts and a restructuring in an attempt to turn around the business.
The retailer said it would slash 475 management roles in Leeds and Leicestershire to “remove duplication and simplify structures” amid a “challenging” market. The remaining staff have also been told they will be required to spend at least three days a week in the office from January.
“We are a business that relies on teams working together. It’s not always as efficient with those teams working together in terms of online, in terms of Zoom calls," Rose said.
Asda has been without a chief executive since the co-owner Mohsin Issa stepped back from executive duties in September, leaving the retail veteran Rose in the lead role.
Rose, who had previously called on Issa to step back, said he was “embarrassed” by Asda’s performance.
“I’d like to see the business flying again, so I stick by what I said,” Rose said. “We’re in here now with our heads together, we’ve got a good management team.”
Family members and employees of post office branch owners who were not considered eligible to make claims over the Horizon IT scandal may be allowed to apply for compensation, postal minister Gareth Thomas told the inquiry into the scandal on Friday (8).
During the hearing, Thomas stated that the government has been looking into the “gaps” in the eligibility criteria for those wanting to make claims under the four redress schemes being administered by the Post Office and the government.
“[Employees and counter assistants] are one of the gaps in the compensation process,” said Thomas. “We are actively looking at what we can do to address those gaps. As indeed we are looking at family members affected very badly by the Horizon scandal and cannot claim compensation either. It was one of those issues identified as being very significant.”
The current schemes exclude applications from family members and assistants at branches because only the person with a direct contract with the Post Office is eligible to apply as managers and counter assistants at branches have a contract with the owner-operator, not the Post Office. And while many branches are run by family teams, not all members have the contract with the Post Office.
Thomas also said that if claimants to the existing schemes can file by Christmas he is confident that payouts can be made by the end of March, the unofficial deadline sought by the leading campaigner Sir Alan Bates.
“Officials have been talking to claimants’ lawyers and looking at potential timings of those claims coming in,” he said. “If claims come in by Christmas we will be able to have made offers of paid financial redress by the end of March.”
Thomas however stressed that no date has been set for a deadline for final applications to be received.
Thomas also said that the government intends to publish a green paper next year to get nationwide views on the future governance options for the Post Office including the ownership of the 11,500 branches. He added that former minister Kevin Hollinrake held “constructive” talks with Post Office workers about ultimately transferring ownership through mutualisation.
“It is difficult to be anything other than concerned about culture in the Post Office,” Thomas said on Friday (8). “There has been some early conversations with stakeholders … about how to change that governance and also look at improvements to culture going forward. We are thinking we will publish a green paper next year to invite wider views about the future of the Post Office.”
Select & Save, which claims to be the UK’s sole independent symbol group, has initiated the rollout of its new identity across its UK estate. Over the past year, the group has invested in its brand to distinguish itself in "an increasingly bland and static market".
Boasting the youngest management team among the UK convenience symbol groups, Select & Save has collaborated with industry experts to redefine its offerings for both retailers and shoppers.
“We believe that without good incentives for retailers, the future of convenience will fall in the hands of the wholesalers, who will ultimately serve their own interests controlling cost pricing and dictating terms,” said Founder and CEO Kam Sanghera.
The group’s new retailer package includes rebates of up to 5.5 per cent and various other incentives. Notably, Select & Save offers a Relief Manager service at no cost, allowing retailers to take well-deserved breaks — a first in the industry.
Store designs have been revamped to enhance inclusivity and visual appeal. The new concept features a distinctive layout with an upgraded colour system, assigning specific colours to each section for an improved shopping experience.
Sanghera added, “This is part of our wider strategy to differentiate ourselves in the market. As most symbol brands have now sold out to a corporate structure, they have no control over their wholesale supply. Once you do that, you lose independence, your individuality, and any negotiating power. We’re making the conscious decision to invest in, enabling us to grow organically as a group by recruiting retailers that share our principles.”
The first rebranded Select & Save store is now open at Calder Drive, Walmley, Birmingham.