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Client Newswrap: Divers find world's oldest champagne and Unilever breaks Nestlé's hold over ice cream sales in Rio

Brands
Divers have found the world’s oldest bottles of drinkable champagne at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The 30 bottles are around 230 years old and thought to have been made by Veuve Clicquot, and could have been a consignment sent by France’s King Louis XVI to the Russian Imperial Court.

Unilever has won a 30-year battle with Nestlé for the right to sell ice cream on the streets and beaches of Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro. While Unilever has been able to sell its brands, including Cornetto and Magnum, in supermarkets and bars in the city, since 1980 it has been lobbying to overturn Nestlé’s exclusive licence to sell ice cream products in lucrative areas such as the city’s beaches.

The Big Issue Foundation has come under fire from the people who sell its magazines after the homelessness charity signed a £60,000 deal with wine brand Fairhills Fairtrade under which magazine vendors, some of whom battle with alcohol and drug problems, would be asked to wear red tabards featuring the wine’s logo.

Premium Belgian beer Vedett is touring the UK in a branded cement mixer truck, with the mixer painted to look like a beer bottle. Over the next month, the brand will visit 27 locations and host parties. Staff will give drinkers the chance to win a personalised Vedett bottle and at the end of the tour one person will have the chance to win the novel, if perhaps a tad cumbersome, prize of the cement mixer itself.

The English football team may have foundered in South Africa but English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding flavour crisps came top in Walkers’ Flavour Cup promotion, taking 20% of the votes cast. American Cheeseburger flavour came second with Japanese Teriyaki Chicken taking the bronze medal. The promotion outsold the brand’s Do Us A Flavour promotion from last year by almost 50%.

Unilever has sold its Italian Findus business for EUR 805m to a company in which Birds Eye Iglo has a significant stake. The transaction includes the sale of Italian Findus brands 4 Salti in Padella, Sofficini, Capitan Findus and That's Amore, and a dedicated factory in Cisterna, Italy.

Retailers
Warm weather, early clearance sales and a boost in consumer confidence contributed to sales in London soaring 14.4% on a like-for-like basis in June, according to research by KPMG and the British Retail Consortium.

Britain’s second biggest department store group Debenhams has completed a £650m refinancing of its debts. The deal, which will cut the store’s interest bill, comprised a £250m loan and a £400m revolving credit facility, the group said.

Online grocery retailer Ocado is being urged to cut the valuation of its initial public offering amid fears among investors and analysts that its stock market floatation will be a flop. Last week, around 3% of eligible customers offered the option of buying shares in the retailer had chosen to do so. Ocado is likely to float at around £800m rather than the £1.1bn directors had hoped for.

Waitrose is rebranding some of its organic food lines under the Duchy Originals name as part of its exclusive licensing deal with brand. The retailer will roll out the new range, featuring the name change of Waitrose Organic to Duchy Originals by Waitrose, from 2 August and plans to add 200 new lines over the next three months.

Pizza chain Domino’s has launched a new lunchtime sandwich menu across its 496 stores in England. The new range, which includes flavours such as cheese steak melt and the interestingly named Spicy Nuclear with tandoori chicken and jalapenos, will be backed by a major marketing push.