US bread basket drought gives supermarkets food for thought

摘要

Sorry, the July swallow won't make the summer. The supermarkets have been finding life in the UK very tough for two years now. Falling volumes, pressure on margins and the growth of the discounters have caused a string of profit forecast downgrades, and underperforming share prices. But a few data points for July suggested that things have started to get better: inflation came down again and volumes seemed to have picked up a bit.