What the Sunday papers said

Yates Group is plotting a bid worth around £110m for the Laurel Pub Company. A successful bid would more than double Yates's pub estate to around 330 pubs. But Yates is likely to face fierce competition from rival groups and private equity buyers. Laurel's management, led by chief executive Ian Payne, is understood to be considering an offer of its own for the business, backed by a private equity firm - The Sunday Telegraph ​

Soft drinks group Britvic has pressed the button for an autumn flotation and will shortly be choosing financial advisers. The move had been expected since Richard North, chief executive of InterContinental Hotels, said there was 'no strategic reason' for the group to own the 47.5 per cent stake in Britvic it inherited from Bass. Whitbread and Allied Domecq own 23.75 per cent each while Pepsico owns 5 per cent - The Mail on Sunday ​

Hotels and betting shops giant Hilton Group is expected to raise its dividend for the first time in three years when it reports interim results on Thursday. Analysts expect the firm to report strong profits growth, helped by a bounce in parts of its hotels business and continued strength in its Ladbrokes betting arm - The Mail on Sunday ​

Brewer John Brigden has found the perfect way to get British beer to holidaymakers abroad. Mr Brigden, managing director of Old Kent Inns, is selling his Dog & Duck Best in a half pint box, a Tetra Pak container normally used for milk, fruit juice or soup - The Mail on Sunday ​

A sea-change in public opinion means that smokers will be banned from the majority of British restaurants by the end of the year, according to the hospitality trade, with four out of five expected to be smoke-free within two years. Gordon Ramsay will next month ban smoking at all seven of his London restaurants, and thousands more are expected to follow suit eventually. Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen became non-smoking last month, while Terence Conran is considering "very carefully" whether to follow suit - The Independent on Sunday ​

The Tootsies restaurant chain is on the verge of changing hands after being put up for sale by its private equity owners for about £30m. Co-owners Piper and Phoenix are understood to have held talks with trade buyers including the Restaurant Group - The Sunday Express ​

A record harvest is threatening to throw the £7.5bn French wine industry into deeper crisis as New World wines continue to swallow a growing share of France's export market. The French agriculture ministry expects wine production to soar this year by more than 20 per cent to 57m hectolitres - The Business ​

This year has been heaven for bookies. New gaming legislation means that Ladbrokes can have 5,800 fixed-odds betting terminals, the modern version of the fruit machine, in its 1,850 shops, and customers can't get enough of them. Touch-screen roulette is the big game, and users find the odds much better than the lottery - The Sunday Times​

Burberry may be the label of choice for trendy fashionistas in swish west London but up in Leicester the Burberry check has been banned from certain pubs because of its links to troublesome youths and football hooligans. Barracuda, which owns the Varsity and Parody pubs, said it had banned drinkers from wearing Burberry, Aquascutum, Henry Lloyd and Stone Island in two of its city pubs - The Financial Times (weekend edition)​