What the Sunday papers said
JD Wetherspoon will this week reveal it has ridden out the smoking ban with plans to open more pubs on the back of rising food sales. The company is expected to reveal profits eight per cent up on last year at £63m for the year to the end of July, when it reports to the City on Friday. Analysts will be looking out for signs that the group will return cash to shareholders, for example by increasing its borrowing or spinning out its properties into a joint venture company. Finance director Jim Clarke has indicated that some cash could be returned without hampering expansion plans. - Scotland On Sunday
Britain's smoking ban has hit one pub landlord so badly his rent has been cut to just £5 a week - less than a packet of 20 cigarettes. John Griffin's city-centre pub is losing hundreds a week. Now his bosses will slash his rent from £447 to a fiver to save the 100-year-old Queen Victoria Inn in Leicester. Mr Griffin, 58, who has run the pub for 20 years, said: "I have until January to turn things around - but I think the pub is done. Some weeks I'm only taking about £100. The smoking ban has cut trade in half almost overnight. I think it's all finished here now." Owners Punch Taverns said: "We have extended support to Mr Griffin to help the business continue." - Sunday Mirror
Robert Tchenguiz, the property tycoon who controls 10 per cent of Sainsbury's shares, is thought to be hopeful that a takeover deal for the food retailer can be agreed by the end of the month. Tchenguiz, whose R20 company owns the Laurel Pub Company, is expected to throw his weight behind the latest bid of £10.6bn from Qatari-backed investment vehicle Delta Two, providing it receives the backing of the board. - Observer
Aussie cricket star Shane Warne appeared to have been caught out yesterday flouting the smoking ban. Warne was spotted puffing on a cigarette in a doorway at the back of the players' balcony while watching his Hampshire teammates against Surrey. The injured player has in the past vowed to kick his 40-a-day habit. Smoking was banned in enclosed public areas and places of work in England two months ago. The law also bans smoking in outdoor areas that are substantially enclosed. Hampshire officials admitted Warne had flouted the ban at the club's Rosebowl stadium. Spokesman Jason Hill said: "We're disappointed with Shane and will be speaking to him about this." - Sunday Mirror
A Florida company has announced that it is gearing up for production of the world's first can that cools itself. After countless delays and false starts, beverage breakthrough company Tempra Technology claims it is now finally ready to begin production of a revolutionary product that could earn its inventor a multi-million dollar fortune. "If self-chilling cans are the beer drinker's Holy Grail, then we've found it for them. It has taken two decades and a lot of work to get this far, but everything is finally ready to roll, and the first cans should be hitting the open market within two years," said Dr Cullen Sabin, Tempra Technology's chief scientist. - Sunday Herald
