Your commercial news round-up: milk, HSBC, AI, NHS, government

Reading time: seven minutes 

Milk is the big news this week, and we’re here to spill it all. Plus, HSBC is facing an uproar from its largest shareholder, the music industry’s feeling threatened by AI, there’s a shortage of doctors and no one has faith in the UK’s political system. You want to be more commercially aware, and we’re here to make that happen with this week’s commercial news round-up.  

• The price of milk has caused a stir among major supermarkets after Britain’s largest supermarket, Tesco, announced it’s cutting the cost of milk for the first time since May 2020. The price of its four-pint bottle will be reduced from £1.65 to £1.55, with its two and single-pint bottles reduced by 5p each. Many are hoping this is a sign that the costs of a weekly shop are beginning to ease, with food inflation last recorded to be at 19.2% – the highest since 1978, but experts suggest this isn’t the case.  

Bread and cereals are regarded as the largest contributors to food inflation, with average prices rising by 19.4% in the year to March 2023. The surging price of food and non-alcoholic drinks has led 51% of adults to buy less food, with one-in-four experiencing shortages of essential food items. The price of milk, specifically, has risen by 43% since February 2022, but Tesco has announced that it’s seen “some cost price deflation for milk across the market in recent times”, adding, “we want to take this opportunity to pass that reduction on to customers".  

The supermarket giant also announced it would be “locking in” the prices of over 1,000 British staples including Yorkshire Tea, chips, and Shredded Wheat. In an attempt to compete with Tesco, Sainsbury’s revealed it wouldn’t only be reducing the price of its milk, but also introducing Nectar card prices to rival Tesco’s Clubcard – the Co-op has also followed suit.  

• From price reductions to “exaggerated costs”, HSBC’s largest shareholder Ping An has accused the bank of exaggerating the costs and risks of breaking off its Asian operations. In recent years, Ping An has suggested a number of restructuring plans the financial giant could adopt to split its business but has failed to gain support from other shareholders.  

The Chinese insurer has now made a bold move by going public with a statement detailing how HSBC should separate its business, arguing that any initial costs should be “open-mindedly weighed against the benefits”. Ping An’s split suggestions range from listing HSBC’s Asia business in Hong Kong to consolidating its operations across the region. However, HSBC has repeatedly spurned calls to restructure, insisting the risks would be too great. Now the insurer has taken its views public, it’s expected that this demand will accelerate the pressure of a split ahead of its annual meeting next month.  

Michael Huang, chair of Ping An Asset Management, has accused the bank of refusing “to countenance any benefits” of the split, insisting HSBC had “exaggerated many of the costs and risks”. Huang is pursuing a split in an attempt to boost HSBC’s returns on equity after the bank came in 2.6% lower than its global peers last year – Haung said HSBC was “significantly” underperforming. HSBC has hit back against Huang’s demands. 

• From one international superstar to another, if you’re a fan of Drake or The Weeknd, you’ll be thrilled to hear their voices together on latest track ‘Heart On My Sleeve’. However, that excitement may quickly fade when you realise that the track is AI-generated. Using machine learning software, the artists’ voices have been cloned by Ghostwriter977 on TikTok, receiving over 20 million listens across TikTok, Twitter and Spotify.  

Universal Music Group (UGM) controls around one-third of the global music market and has already asked streaming platforms to ban the AI-generated song. This isn’t the first time AI has been used to produce music using artists’ voices: technology has been utilised to create a version of Adele’s ‘Easy On Me’ by Kanye West and Rihanna’s voice has been used in a cover of a Beyoncé song.  

Michael Nash, UGM’s executive vice president and chief digital officer, warned the rise of AI in music would be a “calamity”, adding that AI-generated music would dilute the market, “making original creations harder to find and violating artists’ legal rights to compensation from their work”. There are speculations that the track could be a publicity stunt as the pair have previously collaborated; however, neither Drake nor The Weeknd have acknowledged the track. Under the YouTube upload of the track Ghostwriter977 simply wrote “this is just the beginning”. Music is the latest industry to be hit by a wave of AI-generated content known as ‘deep fakes’, with a European Commission official stating that policing such creations was “complex and requires constant monitoring”. 

• Our next story takes us to an issue close to all our hearts, both figuratively and literally: the NHS. @NHSMillion, a Twitter account dedicated to expressing support and gratitude to the NHS, has taken to the platform to reveal that the UK has the second lowest number of doctors per person in all of Europe. According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the UK has just 3.2 doctors per 1,000 people.  

• a slowdown in surgical procedures; 
• women being forced to see male GPs; and
• increased wait times. 

• For our final commercial story, we’re checking in on Rishi Sunak’s government six months on from his appointment as prime minister. Having outlasted his predecessor by almost five months, it appears Sunak has steadied the unstable ship that was the Conservative Party. However, in restoring stability to the party’s political agenda, Sunak now faces the challenge of restoring voters’ confidence in the political system.