All articles by Adam Leyland – Page 52
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NewsEsom resurfaces at Tyrells owner Langholm
Steven Esom will join private equity firm Langholm Capital as a partner this week, The Grocer can reveal.
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Comment & OpinionEditor's Comment: Don't jeopardise a recovering economy for the sake of one month
The secret of comedy, it has oft been observed, is timing. But why stick with just comedy? Politics, business, sport, murder - the effectiveness of almost every decision relies to a greater or lesser extent on its timing.
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: 'We need your help to fight looming calendar crunch'
It’s a very midsummer madness. Right now all thoughts are with sun, sand, picnics, holidays, and the welcome impact of a heatwave. But in retail, July also means Christmas – the golden quarter – is just around the corner.
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: Diverse offer, not size, is key to beating recession
A remarkable feature of the recession has been the resilience of the supermarkets (as well as many grocery retailers), says Adam Leyland
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: Good store managers are entrepreneurs, not caretakers
To the losers, awards are always cruel, and never more so than when individuals are singled out. If a company misses out, a collective sense of injustice — sometimes supplemented by alcohol — can unite a team.
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News
Editor's Comment: Is the discounter boom over?
Sustaining the discounters' godlike levels of growth - which saw Aldi's sales up 25% in 2008, while Lidl, Iceland, Farmfoods and others also enjoyed double-digit gains - was never going to happen.
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: Big four's resilience is extraordinary, but Foley is the prime mover
Our annual exercise in quantifying power (see Power List 2009, p42) isn’t easy. And this year’s Top 10 list of multiples was particularly challenging. One might expect the recession to act as a Darwinian exercise in natural selection. Yet the...
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News
Editor's Comment: Pringles are no more cakes than Mr Kipling French Fancies are crisps
So the Pringle is a crisp after all. And not a cake, as the P&G's lawyers had argued (see p5). Quite right, too, I say. Pringles can be described as many things - a tasty snack, a clever gimmick, an early example of premiumisation, a party...
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: Supermarket clout will make even the mafiosi nervous
Supermarkets are currently fighting tooth and nail to avoid the interference of an Ombudsman. And they regularly baulk at the heavy-handed approach of the Office of Fair Trading.
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: If you give someone a bigger portion than they need, they will eat it
I've read my share of self-serving surveys, and may I be at least the second to commend the Food Standards Agency on its latest contribution to the genre. This one found - quel surprise - that eight out of 10 cats prefer the FSA's traffic lights....
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News
Editor's Comment: A blanket 3% cut in cost price seems crude but it's an opening gambit, right?
Tesco is not the only multiple playing hardball with its suppliers right now, says Adam Leyland
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News
Editor's Comment: Tesco has become part of The Establishment
This week Tesco overtook Carrefour to become the world's second-most profitable retailer. And with the Chancellor announcing a basket case Budget a day later, it might seem odd to question one of the enduring success stories of the past New Labour...
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NewsOwn Label/PLMA Preview: Ideas that cross frontiers
The recent success of the discounters is a reminder to the UK's grocery establishment that British consumers have a strong appetite for foreign goods and ideas. By Adam Leyland
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News
Editor's Comment: As Ocado adds scale, it can increase profits exponentially
The UK's fastest-growing grocery retailer is probably not who you might think, says Adam Leyland
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News
Editor's Comment: Even today, Innocent founders prefer flipflops to Ferraris
Arch comments were in no short supply this week as Innocent Drinks confirmed the sale of a minority stake to Coca-Cola for £30m. One resourceful journalist on the Daily Telegraph, in a search for haunting former protestations about its die-hard...
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NewsActivia and Actimel keep up the pace in downturn
Sales of Activia and Actimel have continued where they left off in 2008 in the first quarter of 2009, with 50% of Activia's double-digit growth coming from its new Intensely Creamy posh desserts range. In a static market, volume sales in...
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NewsCoca-Cola takes £30m stake in Innocent
Coca-Cola has taken a minority stakeholding in Innocent Drinks, the smoothie and veg pots brand, for £30m, The Grocer can reveal.
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News
Editor's Comment: Booker's Indian wholesale move shows Charles Wilson's entrepreneurial spirit
Charles Wilson is a canny one. The CEO of Booker has done a great job since returning to his old stomping ground, and the latest quarter's 6.4% like-for-like growth confirms the progress. Indeed, coming in the same week M&S announced a 4.2%...
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News
Promote or BANG!
You don't have to like it, and it's getting more scary by the minute, but trade promotion is an essential feature of modern retailing. Adam Leyland and James Ball report
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News
Editor's Comment: So now we can advertise condoms to kids, but not cheese, honey or bran-rich cereals
Over the past half decade, Dame Deirdre Hutton has been a key figure at two identically titled regulatory bodies: the FSA and the FSA. The Food Standards Agency, which she has chaired since 2005, Dame Deirdre has regulated with a fearsome...