Booker sales up in smoke

VEGGIE NOTES IN YOUR PALM

SHARES in energy giants SSE tumbled 1.7 per cent yesterday. Investors were spooked by the firm’s dividend cover – a measure of their ability to pay shareholder rewards – being lower than expected.

SSE, who use orangutans in TV ads, are raising their full year dividend by just over two per cent. But customers are being hit with large price hikes. CASH and carry kings Booker have revealed a sharp slowdown in sales. Takings rose 0.7 per cent in the past three months, from a 3.2 per cent increase in the previous quarter – mainly because of a slump in tobacco sales.

The drop comes amid investor unease about Booker’s proposed £3.7billion merger with supermarket giants Tesco.

Retail analyst David Alexander branded Booker’s latest results a “damp squib”.

But Booker chief executive Charles Wilson insisted their financial year as a whole had been upbeat.

He said: “Customer satisfaction was good and sales were the best we have ever achieved.” FASHION giants H&M are to launch a new store chain called Arket this autumn selling dearer clothes.

It comes as the Swedish firm, who also own COS clothing, reported that profits dropped three per cent to £2.8billion in three months to March. SLAMMED Bank of England’s Mark Carney with £5 note THE Bank of England risk triggering a new row with their idea for “meat-free” £20 notes.

They were slammed by vegetarians after it emerged the new plastic £5 notes contained tallow, derived from animal fat.

Now the bank are proposing to use palm oil in the new plastic £20 notes, due to enter circulation in 2020. But environmental groups blame palm oil production for destroying swathes of rain forest.

The Bank insist their suppliers will only use “environmentally sustainable production”.

Another alternative being considered is coconut oil.