Toast munchers who had taken to mixing pounds of salt into tarmacadam to replicate the taste of Marmite can rest easy.
The dispute between Marmite-maker Unilever (it does make scores of other products but for some reason the yeast extract spread has been picked as the flagship brand of the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant) and Tesco PLC (LON:PLC) has been resolved, and the supermarket is now receiving new shipments of Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR) products.
No one knows who won out in the dispute, which was over who should bear the brunt of the effect of sterling’s fall: shoppers, or the massively profitable international foods giant, Unilever.
The share prices of both companies were hit when news of the dispute – invariably called a “spat” in the media, probably as a result of some ancient charter or bye-law or something – went public, so the fact that they have kissed and made up is probably good news for both.
Unilever got millions of pounds of free publicity for its products so that might just help it swallow some of the extra cost associated with importing ingredients from abroad into its UK factories.
The Sun newspaper took a typically robust view, and declared Tesco the winner.
“The Brexit price hike on Marmite was an outrageous attempt to fleece shoppers,” it claimed.
“We understand that the weaker pound will increase the price of imported grub,” it said, using the sort of argot its Oxbridge-educated sub-editors probably use all the time down the old rub-a-dub.
“But Marmite is a British product made here from home-grown ingredients,” it notes.
Specifically, if memory serves me, from yeast produced as a by-product of brewing ale.
“Tesco was dead right to resist the rise. It cannot be coincidence that the Dutch boss of the spread’s maker Unilever is a staunch Remainer who predicted just such price rises if we voted out,” The Sun claimed, crowbarring a bit of jingoism into the article, as is its wont; it is probably required by an ancient charter or bye-law, or something.
On the subject of Brexit, Donald Tusk (I’d think about a name change, were I Donald), the president of the European Council, has poured cold water on the idea, beloved of Britain’s answer to Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, that Britain could somehow be part of the European Union’s single market without bearing any of the costs.
“The only real alternative to a hard Brexit is no Brexit, even if today hardly anyone believes in such a possibility,” Tusk told an audience of policy makers in Brussels yesterday.
In view of all this anti-European rhetoric flying about, perhaps it is time to stage a rematch of the Battle of Hastings, which took place on this day 950 years ago.
The Normans famously won the battle late in the day, after which Britain became a much more feudal society, with much tugging of the forelock to our Norman overlords – descendants of the original invaders still own a frighteningly large proportion of Britain’s lands – and much Anglo-Saxon language used about them behind their backs.
Having said that, it is worth remembering that the Normans, or “Northmen”, were originally Vikings, while the Anglo-Saxons were also unwelcome invaders on these shores at some point.
It’s a tricky business this xenophobia, isn’t it?
950 years ago today was #BattleofHastings. England's darkest day. Alien invaders changed our law, language & way of life forever
— Stephen Welfare (@stevewelfare) October 14, 2016
Lastly, there has been a bit of good news for fallen stock market star Man Group PLC (LON:EMG), the hedge fund manager.
Broker Liberum Capital Markets reiterated its ‘buy’ recommendation this morning after Man’s third quarter update showed total assets under management rose 6% in the quarter to US$80.7bn, driven by net inflows of US$1.3bn and positive investment positive performance of US$2.5bn.
“Man Group is a long way from firing on all cylinders and arguably the time to buy it is in anticipation of that. We are not suggesting that is going to happen immediately but after recent share price weakness (-28% in last six months) we believe there is enough in today's statement to reignite interest,” Liberum said.