Primark owner Associated British Foods has announced half-year pre-tax profits up 4% to £466m.

Conglomerates were all the rage in the 1960s, but fell out of fashion along with the beehive hairdo. Primark is about to remind us why. The fast-growing clothing operation is part of Associated British Foods (ABF), whose other businesses include sugar processing, food ingredients and brands such as Twinings Tea, as well as agriculture.

BUDGET retailer Penneys says that clothing prices will not rise despite the soaring cost of cotton.

The owner of Twinings tea and Mazola cooking oil Associated British Foods has agreed to buy Burns Philp & Co’s bakery and US spices units for $1.35 billion in cash to become one of the world’s biggest makers of bread ingredients.

Associated British Foods plc, the owner of British Sugar Plc, agreed to buy Billington food group, a British sugar importer valued at £7.7 million.