Retail news round-up: Sir Philip Green’s knighthood is at stake over the sale of BHS, while Unilever settles its dispute with Tesco 

MPs to decide on Green’s knighthood

MPs will decide next week whether Sir Philip Green should lose his knighthood after the collapse of BHS, The Guardian reported.

The collapse of BHS resulted in 11,000 people losing their jobs and a shortfall of £570m in the pension scheme.

The Pension Protection Fund that is currently taking responsibility for paying retirement benefits to former BHS employees has asked the retailer's joint administrators to begin liquidating the remaining entities by the end of the month.

The parliamentary motion has been put forward by Conservative MP Richard Fuller and independent MP Michelle Thomson.

The motion “calls on the honours forfeiture committee to cancel and annul [Green’s knighthood]”.

Green commented “I don’t want to get involved.”

Unilever settles dispute with Tesco

Tesco, after halting the online sales of goods, has settled a pricing row with Unilever, but Irish retailers are still in dispute with the Anglo-Dutch multinational, The Independent reported.

Unilever said it is "pleased to confirm that the supply situation with Tesco in the UK and Ireland has now been successfully resolved".

Unilever supplies 800 products including Knorr soups, Lyons Tea, Flora margarine, Domestos, and Pot Noodles to SuperValu. Unilever, which is still in dispute with Irish retailers, has halted the supply of these goods as a result of the dispute.

SuperValu, Centra and Dunnes Stores are resisting attempts to impose double-digit price increase.

Household brands to get pricier

Experts have warned that dozens of household brands will raise their prices by at least 10% following Brexit, The Telegraph reported.

The inflated prices of goods will hit the consumers from early next year.

Richard Baker, chairman of the British Retail Consortium, said that price hikes were unavoidable as supermarkets could not bear all the extra costs.

Baker said “Clearly, a 15 or 20 per cent depreciation will raise import costs and, while some retailers have been able to protect themselves in the short term through smart procurement and forward currency purchases, eventually this will unwind.”

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