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UK & IRELAND

Aldi Makes Post-Brexit Food Standards Commitment

Aldi UK's Chief Executive has vowed that the supermarket will only ever sell fresh chicken and beef from British farmers. Giles Hurley also ruled out selling chlorinated chicken or hormone-treated beef, regardless of any future trade deals being struck for when the Brexit transition period comes to an end on 31 December...read more

Morrisons Unveils First Non-Food Store

Morrisons has opened its first stand-alone non-food store that sells its Nutmeg clothing and Home ranges...read more

High Street Footfall Remains Subdued

New data suggests that the retail industry is facing a long way back to normality with footfall still only half what it was a year ago two weeks on from when most shops reopened in England...read more

New Chief Executive At Graze

Unilever-owned healthy snack brand Graze has appointed a new Chief Executive after Anthony Fletcher stepped down following nearly eight years in the role...read more

Reckitt Benckiser Appoints Former P&G Exec As 'Transformation Officer'

Reckitt Benckiser (RB) has announced the appointment of Volker Kuhn as its Chief Transformation Officer, effective 1 August...read more

Harrods Opens Discount Outlet To Shift Excess Stock

Upmarket department store Harrods has opened its first discount concept at the Westfield London shopping centre selling existing and previous season products with price cuts of at least 40%...read more

PRODUCTS & PROMOTIONS

Red Bull Launches Limited Edition Summer Flavour

Energy drink brand Red Bull has unveiled the latest in its Editions series with the launch of a watermelon-flavoured 'Summer Edition'...read more

INTERNATIONAL

Amazon Delaying Prime Day Again

Amazon has delayed its annual Prime Day sales extravaganza until at least October to give it more time to recover from the disruption to its supply chain caused the coronavirus pandemic...read more

Coca-Cola Discontinuing Odwalla Brand

Coca-Cola will stop selling its juice and smoothie brand Odwalla by the end of July...read more

Uber Paying Over $2.6bn For Rival Food Delivery Service

Uber is buying US food delivery service Postmates in an all-stock deal valued at around $2.65bn...read more

UK & IRELAND

Tesco Sets Deadline For Suppliers To Make Cuts As Part Of Shift To EDLP

Tesco has reportedly given suppliers until the end of this week to agree to price reductions as it prepares to step-up its battle with Aldi and Lidl...read more

Sainsbury's Ending Immediate Payments For Small Suppliers

Sainsbury's is to stop paying its smaller suppliers quicker - an initiative it introduced at the height of the coronavirus crisis...read more

Poundstretcher's CVA Proposal Approved By Creditors

The creditors of ailing discount retailer Poundstretcher have approved the proposed company voluntary arrangement (CVA) put forward by the business on 16 June...read more

Capacity Constraints Likely To Limit Impact Of M&S's Online Grocery Launch

Marks & Spencer has admitted that there will initially be "limited" scope for its customers to be able to shop with Ocado when its new online grocery joint venture officially launches in September...read more

Noble Foods Names New CEO

Kerry Foods stalwart Duncan Everett has been appointed as Chief Executive of Noble Foods, the company behind brands such as The Happy Egg Co. and G? Puds...read more

Pret A Manger Cutting Stores And Jobs

Sandwich chain Pret A Manger has become the latest firm to make cuts in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic...read more

Upfield Returns To Growth After Tapping Into Plant-Based Food Market

Upfield, the spreads business sold by Unilever in 2017, has revealed how it tapped into the growing demand for eco-friendly 'plant-based' foods as part of an overhaul of its brands to combat falling sales of traditional margarine...read more

Former Sainsbury's Exec Joins Board At Morrisons

Morrisons has appointed Jeremy Townsend as a Non-Executive Director...read more

PRODUCTS & PROMOTIONS

Budweiser Brand Set For Overhaul, Starting In Ireland

The Budweiser brand is being overhauled, with Ireland the first market where changes will be introduced...read more

Coca-Cola's Capri-Sun Brand Completes Move Away From Artificial Ingredients

Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) has announced that its entire Capri-Sun portfolio is now free from artificial ingredients, following the reformulation of its Capri-Sun No Added Sugar range...read more

UK & IRELAND

WH Smith Cutting Head Office Jobs

WH Smith is the latest retailer looking to cut jobs in wake of the coronavirus pandemic...read more

Sainsbury's Chairman Defends Record Of Former Chief Exec

Martin Scicluna, the Chairman of Sainsbury's, yesterday defended the record of former Chief Executive Mike Coupe after being asked to say sorry for the group's poor share price performance during his six-year reign...read more

New Chief Executive Appointed At Kerry Foods

Kerry Group has announced that Nick Robinson will be new Chief Executive Officer of its Kerry Foods unit in the UK & Ireland...read more

Dairy Outperforms Wider Grocery Market

Figures from Kantar show the dairy market grew by 17.9% over the 12 weeks to 17 May, outperforming the overall grocery market (up 14.3% over the same period). This was the fastest growth dairy has seen over the coronavirus period with the value of the market hitting ?3.1bn...read more

Frozen Food Revival Here To Stay

A new study commissioned by Birds Eye and Iceland has suggested that the acceleration of frozen food's revival during the lockdown is set to continue and create long-term changes in shopping habits...read more

M&S Looking To Put Spark Back Into Loyalty Scheme

Marks & Spencer is relaunching its flagging 'Sparks' loyalty programme as a "digital first" scheme...read more

Consumer Confidence Shows Signs Of Improving As Lockdown Eases

After taking a battering in recent months, new data suggests that consumer confidence improved again at the end of last month as lockdown restrictions continued to ease...read more

Slightly Better Month For High Street Retailers

New data shows the UK high street experienced another sharp fall in sales in June. However, figures were the best since before the lockdown as non-essential stores began to reopen their doors...read more

INTERNATIONAL

Coty Changing Chief Executive Again

Struggling cosmetics giant Coty has named former L'Or?al executive Sue Nabi as its next Chief Executive Officer. She won't take up the position until September, but the announcement comes just weeks after Peter Harf, Chairman of both the company and its top shareholder JAB Holdings, returned to the CEO role to help with Coty's turnaround plans...read more

Lidl Outlines Major Investment Plan For Italy

Lidl has revealed that it will be investing ?400m in its operations in Italy this year, including opening 50 new stores. The move will create 2,000 jobs which the discounter highlighted will contribute to the recovery of the Italian economy that has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus lockdown...read more

Unilever Agrees Digital Marketing Tie-Up With Alibaba

Unilever is partnering with Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of China's Alibaba Group, in a strategic initiative that will enable the consumer goods giant to develop "next-generation" digital marketing campaigns...read more

UK & IRELAND

Jacksons And Warburtons Replacing Allied Bakeries As Co-op's Bread Supplier

Jacksons has secured a deal to supply the Co-op with own label bread from next year. The announcement comes days after ABF revealed that its Allied Bakeries unit had lost its contract to supply the retailer after failing to agree on commercial terms...read more

Profit Hit At Carlsberg Less Than Expected

Shares in Carlsberg rose nearly 6% on Friday after the brewing giant revealed that the impact on its profits from the coronavirus outbreak has not been as bad as previously forecast...read more

Payment Terms Of Major Food & Drink Manufacturers Still Exceeding Recommended Limits

New research suggests that some leading food and drink manufacturers in the UK have made little progress in making prompt payment to their suppliers...read more

Asda's Equal Pay Case Being Heard In The Supreme Court

The long-running fight for equal pay for thousands of female Asda workers hits the Supreme Court today, with ramifications for the industry as a whole...read more

Halfords Could Close Up 60 Sites

Halfords could close up to 60 of its outlets this year as it ramps up the restructuring of its estate due to the coronavirus pandemic...read more

Footfall Data Suggests Lacklustre Response To Reopening Of High Street Stores

The woes of the High Street continued last month despite the reopening of most non-essential stores...read more

Disappointing Reopening Weekend For On-Trade

Trade was down 44.5% year-on-year during the first weekend bars, pubs and restaurants were able to reopen...read more

Buyout Firm Circling Casual Dining Group

Casual Dining Group (CDG), the owner of the Bella Italia, Caf? Rouge and Las Iguanas restaurant chains that fell into administration earlier month, is being eyed by buyout firm Epiris...read more

PRODUCTS & PROMOTIONS

Cathedral City Launching UK's First Cheese Packaging Recycling Scheme

Cathedral City has partnered with recycling firm TerraCycle to launch the industry's first recycling scheme for flexible film cheese packaging, to be rolled out for the entire cheese category...read more

Aldi Scraps Lids From Baby Wipes To Reduce Use Of Plastic

Aldi is removing plastic lids from its Mamia baby wipes range as part of its drive to reduce the use of plastic across its business...read more

UK & IRELAND

Lidl Outlines Expansion Plan To Hit 1,000 Stores Target

Lidl has revealed that it will be opening one store per week in the UK over the next six months, creating up to 1,000 new jobs by the end of the year. The 25 new stores will be opening across England, Scotland and Wales...read more

Bumper Half Year For Ocado With Increased Online Demand Set To Continue

Ocado saw its first-half sales break through the ?1bn-mark after a surge in online grocery shopping during the coronavirus pandemic...read more

Iceland's Joint MD Departs

Nigel Broadhurst has stepped down from his role as joint Managing Director of frozen food specialist Iceland...read more

Wilko Appoints New Finance Chief

Wilko has appointed Karen Mackay as its new Group Chief Financial Officer. She replaces Alex Russo, who is joining B&M in October...read more

The Original Factory Shop Makes Changes To Leadership Team

The Original Factory Shop (TOFS) has overhauled its leadership team with the appointment of a new Chairman and Managing Director...read more

Retail Sales Return To Growth

The UK retail sector saw its biggest monthly sales jump in more than two years in June as warmer weather and the easing of lockdown measures encouraged some shoppers back to the high street...read more

Lidl Heads To Court Over 'Flawed' Aldi Price Survey In Ireland

Lidl Ireland has brought High Court proceedings over an allegedly flawed price survey commissioned by Aldi over two years ago...read more

Arla Foods Warns Departure From EU Without Trade Deal Will Result In Higher Prices

Arla Foods, the owner of dairy brands such as Cravendale and Anchor, has warned that consumers face higher prices and empty shelves if the UK government does not agree on a trade deal with the EU by the end of the year which is tariff and friction free...read more

Pandemic Could Cause Next Big Food Scandal

The effects of the coronavirus pandemic could give rise to the next biggest case of food fraud since the 2013 horse meat scandal, if correct protocol levels continue to drop...read more

Diageo Set To Introduce Paper Bottles For Spirits

Diageo has created what it claims to be the 'first-ever' 100% plastic-free paper-based spirits bottle. Made from sustainably sourced wood, the fully recyclable bottle will debut with the company's Johnnie Walker scotch whisky brand in early 2021...read more

INTERNATIONAL

Tesco Restarts Investment In Indian Joint Venture

Whilst having withdrawn from several overseas markets in recent years, Tesco still appears to be keen to grow its presence in the huge Indian market...read more

Increased Demand For Snack Products Helps PepsiCo Offset Weakness In Drinks

PepsiCo has beaten analysts' estimates for quarterly revenue and profit after the business benefitted from people munching on its snacks lines such as Cheetos and Doritos during the coronavirus lockdown. This helped offset weakness in its drinks business which was impacted by the drop in out-of-home consumption...read more

UK & IRELAND

Supply Chain Flexibility And Decentralisation Crucial For Retail Resilience

Supply chain professionals from the likes of Morrisons, Mondelez, and Holland & Barrett are planning to prioritise supply chain resilience and flexibility when building for the future...read more

Frozen Sales Continue To Outperform Overall Grocery Market

Sales of frozen food jumped by 19.4% (+?285m) in value terms and volumes rose 17.5% over the 12 weeks to 14 June as consumers stocked up their freezers during the pandemic...read more

Head Of SuperValu and Centra Chains Stepping Down

Martin Kelleher, the long-serving Managing Director of Musgrave's SuperValu and Centra chains in Ireland, is leaving the business...read more

BWG Hoping Convenience Stores Can Tap Into Booming Online Delivery Channel

BWG, the group behind the SPAR, Londis and Mace convenience chains in Ireland, is looking at rolling out online shopping and home delivery services following a surge in demand in recent months...read more

M&S Food Surges Up Customer Satisfaction Ranking

Marks & Spencer's recent investment in improving its food offer appears to be paying off with the retailer moving into the top 10 of a leading customer satisfaction ranking...read more

Evian Introduces Label-Free Bottle

Danone's evian water brand has unveiled a new bottle that features an innovative engraved logo, rather than a traditional plastic label...read more

Coca-Cola Launches Major Sampling Campaign For Costa Coffee RTD Range

Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) is planning to deliver 50,000 sample boxes of its Costa Coffee ready-to-drink (RTD) range to households across the UK as part of a major summer sampling campaign...read more

INTERNATIONAL

Walmart Ready To Challenge Amazon Prime

Walmart is reportedly close to launching its own membership programme to compete with Amazon's successful Prime service...read more

Uber Launches Grocery Delivery Service

Uber has leveraged its ownership of delivery start-up Cornershop to launch on-demand grocery delivery service in several Latin American and Canadian cities, with the US to follow later this month...read more

Walmart's Massmart Business Cutting Jobs

Massmart, the South African retail group majority-owned by Walmart, has revealed that up to 1,800 jobs are at risk in its struggling Game chain...read more

UK & IRELAND

Sainsbury's Agrees Supply Deal With Dobbies

Dobbies is to start selling food from Sainsbury's, four years after the garden centres business was sold by Tesco...read more

Poundland Moving Into E-Commerce As Part Of Transformation Plan

Poundland has revealed that it is planning to trial an online store as part of a transformation programme dubbed 'Project Diamond' that features changes to its stores, pricing, and product range...read more

Profits Tumble At Heineken After 'Significant' Hit From Pandemic

Heineken saw a 52.5% decline in first-half operating profit after the coronavirus pandemic took its toll on the group's on-trade business...read more

M&S Expands Frozen Food Offer By Selling Popular French Brand

Marks & Spencer has this week started selling products from Picard, one of France's most popular frozen food brands...read more

Sales Of Dairy Products Soared During Lockdown

Latest data from Kantar shows dairy take-home sales climbed 18.7% in the 12 weeks to 14 June 2020; outperforming the overall grocery market (up 13.7%) and reaching ?3.1bn during the period which covers the whole of the coronavirus lockdown...read more

INTERNATIONAL

Carrefour Appoints New Head Of Italian Unit

Christophe Rabatel is set to take charge of Carrefour's operations in Italy under the title of Executive Director. He is currently head of the French group's business in Poland...read more

Bumper Half For Jumbo But Closing La Place Sites

Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo saw its first-half turnover grow 14.2% to ?5.10bn, driven by 9.5% like-for-like growth as the chain benefitted from consumer stockpiling amid the coronavirus pandemic...read more

Italy's Crai Expanding To Tap Into Increased Demand For Groceries

Italian supermarket chain Crai has revealed that it plans to open 215 new stores by the end of 2020 as it looks to build on strong sales growth during the pandemic...read more

UK & IRELAND

Boots Cutting Thousands Of Jobs After Taking Major Hit From Pandemic

Boots has revealed plans to cut up to 4,000 jobs and close opticians practices across the UK as it accelerates its turnaround programme to mitigate the "significant impact" on its business from the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement was made alongside the release of Walgreens Boots Alliance's third-quarter results which showed that like-for-like retail sales at Boots UK had plummeted 48%...read more

John Lewis To Permanently Close Eight Stores

John Lewis is to permanently close eight of its 50 department stores to "secure the business's long-term future and respond to customers' shopping needs"...read more

Asda Trialling Speedy Grocery Deliveries Via Uber Eats

Asda has linked up with Uber Eats to meet the growing demand for rapid grocery delivery services...read more

Mixed Reaction To Support Package For Hospitality Sector; Retailers Also Want Help

Yesterday's announcement by the Chancellor that he was introducing a discounted eating out scheme and temporary VAT cut in the hospitality sector was applauded by some key industry players, although foodservice wholesalers suggested more specific support was needed to save hard-hit firms...read more

C&C Names Appoints Heineken Exec As New CEO

C&C Group, the owner of brands such as Tennent's and Bulmers, has appointed David Forde as its new Chief Executive Officer...read more

Aldi Stepping Up Plastic Reduction Drive

Aldi has announced a new commitment to reduce the volume of plastic packaging used on the products it sells by 50% by 2025...read more

PRODUCTS & PROMOTIONS

Captain Birds Eye Replaced

The Captain Birds Eye character is being replaced for a limited period by a real frozen food shopper on packs of fish fingers for the first time in the brand's 50+ year history...read more

UK & IRELAND

Shift To EDLP Not Start Of A Price War, Says Tesco

Tesco has played down recent reports that its move towards an EDLP strategy is part of plans to start a price war with rivals in response to the impending recession. The retailer stated it was part of its existing longer-term plans and rejected claims that suppliers haven't been given enough time to prepare...read more

Supermarket Promotions On Unhealthy Food Set To Be Banned

The government is reportedly planning to introduce a ban on supermarket promotions of unhealthy food as part of its strategy to tackle obesity in England...read more

Easing Of Lockdown Measures Boosts Shopper Confidence

Latest data from IGD suggests shopper confidence is starting to improve as lockdown restrictions continue to ease...read more

Member-Owned Buying Group Reports Solid Growth In First Year Of Operation

National Buying Consortium (NBC), the member-owned buying group that launched last summer, has reported robust growth in its first year of operation. This included generating over ?9.2m through National Distribution Network (NDN), its flexible warehousing and logistics service...read more

Management Changes At Simply Fresh

Michael O'Loughlin has been appointed as the new Chief Operating Officer at Simply Fresh, the convenience store operator that recently agreed on a supply deal with Sainsbury's...read more

B&M Confirms Start Date For New CFO

Alex Russo, Asda's former CFO and the current group finance director at Wilko, will join B&M on 5 October...read more

Online Retail Sales Boom Continues Despite Return of Bricks & Mortar Stores

Even as the high street came out of hibernation last month, June's online retail sales growth spiked to a new twelve-year high of 33.9%...read more

INTERNATIONAL

Another Strong Month For Costco

Costco saw another surge in sales last month, fuelled in part by the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Online sales remained particularly strong but the group also saw increased customer numbers in its warehouses...read more

Barry Callebaut Expecting Quick Recovery

Barry Callebaut, the Swiss firm that makes chocolate for the likes of Nestl? and Unilever, raised its sales forecast yesterday on expectations that demand from major food companies would recover relatively quickly from the coronavirus-related downturn even if restaurants and bakeries continue to struggle...read more

Lidl Pressures Rivals In The US To Slash Prices

Lidl's recent entry into New York's Long Island market pressured grocery retailers to cut their prices by up to 15%, according to a new study...read more