What the Sunday papers said

Greene King, the regional brewer and pub company, is believed to be weighing up a £70m offer for Loch Fyne, the seafood restaurant business. The chain, headed by chief executive Mark Derry, has received a small number of approaches from pub companies interested in acquiring the business, with Greene King thought to be among them. Talks are said to be at a preliminary stage and Loch Fyne has yet to appoint a financial adviser or to begin formally marketing the company to buyers. - Sunday Times​

Drinkers tempted to put their money into quiz machines in pubs would be better off putting their money into Inspired Gaming Group, the company behind the quiz machines. Inspired manages more than 90,000 machines across the UK and what makes the company interesting is how it is using broadband technology both to boost the longevity of its machines and its profits. Its shares reached a high of 343p in May before falling to the current 298p, valuing the business at £210m. Nonetheless the company remains a compelling proposition and remains one to track over the coming months. - Sunday Telegraph​

The ban on smoking has not led to widespread pub closures, despite dire warnings to the contrary, industry figures have revealed. Scotland had 5,151 licences in force for pubs at the end of December, nine months after the ban came into force, compared with 5,150 a year earlier, the Scottish Beer and Pub Association said. Patrick Browne, the SBPA's chief executive, said the pub trade had survived by diversifying into new areas such as food and entertainment and away from a limited focus on beer. But he added: "We should treat these figures with caution given that it is generally only when a licensed premise comes up to be re-licensed every three years that we find out whether the business is still trading." - Scotland On Sunday​

Pubs group JD Wetherspoon, with 39 Scottish outlets, will be the latest major drinks group to report on the initial effects of the English smoking ban when chairman Tim Martin delivers a trading statement on Wednesday. Brokers have downgraded profit expectations by around 5% to around £63m for this year because of the costs involved in installing outside facilities but believe that the company may now be winning business away from smaller and less prepared rivals and have nudged up expectations for 2008. In Scotland, the group has seen like-for-like sales rise by around 5% in recent months. - Sunday Herald​

Following a £5m academic study, the Food Standards Agency, Britain's food watchdog, has concluded that people in the bottom 15 per cent of society eat pretty much as well - or, rather, as badly - as everyone else. The amount of fruit and vegetables, fat and fibre was only "slightly worse" than average. Despite the perceived national lack of culinary skills, 91 per cent of women and 64 per cent of men said they could cook a meal from scratch. Moreover, diet was not affected by the fact that most people shopped in large supermarkets, undermining the theory that the disappearance of greengrocers has led to the creation of "food deserts" in inner cities. - Independent On Sunday​

Mum Nicola Roden was left in tears after pub staff ordered her to remove a hat she wears to hide her hair loss. Nicola, 40, had gone with her husband and four children to the local Wacky Warehouse to celebrate daughter Taila's ninth birthday. A waitress ordered alopecia sufferer Nicola to remove her hat because their CCTV cameras needed a clear view of customers' faces. Staff refused to make an exception of their "family friendly" policy - designed to keep out hoodies and baseball hat-wearing yobs. Nicola, who walked out of the pub in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, said: "I didn't want the children to see me in tears." A spokesman for pub company Spirit Group said: "The employee who made the request was unaware of Nicola's condition." - Sunday People​