All articles by Adam Leyland – Page 55
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News
Lion gets its teeth into frozen with Foodvest
The Foodvest Group is now “a scale player with a scale private equity house behind it”, according to Young’s Seafood MD Jim Cane. Lion Capital, which acquired Foodvest, the owner of Young’s Seafood and Findus, for £1.1bn on Tuesday, would use the...
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News
Asda could be used as a pawn to get back at Tesco for daring to pitch up in Wal-Mart’s backyard
This week (20th July 2008) saw the first signs that crude oil and commodity prices – the conditions responsible for the rampant food price inflation we have – are abating. And not before time. As a number of expert commentators have observed, the balance between...
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News
The Flying Dutchman
Morrisons caught its rivals off guard with its recovery. CEO Marc Bolland tells Adam Leyland how it was done Marc Bolland doesn’t want to be known as ‘a marketer’. He’s a retailer now, CEO of Morrisons, entrusted with the keys by Sir Ken and doing well by all accounts. But ...
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Comment & Opinion
Opinion: FSA's Smith will need a deft touch
Tim Smith, the new FSA chief executive offers hope of a less polarised, more collaborative approach to food regulation. Delicately and obliquely acknowledging some of its mistakes, he is keen to build consensus. He also promised to stick...
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News
Macca champions Meatfree Monday
Sir Paul McCartney has called on Britons to embrace 'Meat-Free Monday' to cut carbon emissions. The concept of cutting out meat one day a week has taken off in Australia as shoppers have become conscious of the environmental impact of...
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News
beauty in simplicity
Distribution is simple. But that doesn't make it easy. It's a truism with which Sainsbury's has been dealing ever since the Sir Peter Davis era, when the launch of two new 'fulfilment factories', at Hams Hall and Waltham Point, appeared to usher...
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Rankings
The Power List 2008
Economic upheaval, along with opportunism, has brought big changess in this year’s list. Ross Butler, Mark Choueke and Adam Leyland report.
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News
The Big Eat: digesting the new plans to tackle obesity
Alan Johnson summed it up: "The problem is simple: we eat too much and we do too little exercise," said the secretary of state at the Department of Health. "The solution is more complex. From the nature of the food we eat, to the way our...
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News
Asda tests brand equity
Asda is putting the brand equity of Britain's food and drink brands to the test in an attempt to weed out needless duplication and offer customers greater choice. Earlier this summer the UK's second-largest supermarket delisted Princes tuna...
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News
Smoke or mirrors in retrospective inquiry?
As the Competition Commission prepares to wade through an estimated 11 million emails, and thousands of phone calls, from Asda and Tesco and its suppliers, the inquiry appeared this week to have reached a pivotal moment. Has it found the smoking gun...
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News
"Tesco's announcement that it would pay farmers up to an extra 5p a litre was a PR masterstroke"
As our Weigh It Up! campaign hit a new high point this week, with a pledge by the Conservative Party to back our calls for a review of the Nutrient Profiling Model, I thought I ought to talk about something else for a change. So let's look at ...
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News
This week's hot topic by Adam Leyland
One of the enduring strengths of Tesco is its ability to adapt to the needs of its customers. Whether it's the clever use of the data in its Clubcards, entrance sensors that monitor shopper levels to ensure there's enough till staff, or more...
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News
Slay's Perfect Serve
The mantra for Diageo right now in both the on and off-trades is 'the perfect serve'. The trouble with perfection is it often takes longer to achieve than one might like. Take the fortunes of Guinness. A surger kit was launched exclusively...
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News
"The hazard warning system runs contrary to the data inside it. Confused? Imagine what it's like for Jo Public"
I bought a bar of chocolate from Sainsbury's this week. It is looking at me lovingly as I write this. But I resist. New Year's resolutions and all that. No, I wanted to find out just how dangerous a bar of chocolate is. I had bought a Kit Kat a...
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Comment & Opinion
"The deal is an exciting prospect - but Robert Schofield ain't going to have it all his own way"
If it goes ahead, Premier's acquisition of RHM is an exciting prospect. It brings together many of Britain's best-known food brands, and with his old alma mater, United Biscuits, reportedly still in his sights, you can expect lots of headlines...
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News
"The remarkable thing about this market is the resilience and optimism of wholesalers like Sir Anwar"
It's been a busy week for Sir Anwar Pervez. On Tuesday, the founder of the Bestway Group celebrated 30 years as a cash & carry wholesaler with a lavish bash for 1,000 guests at Grosvenor House in London. On Wednesday, he was treating journalists...
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News
"Where King started by growing the top line, it's interesting that Rose started by hacking back costs"
Stuart Rose once famously slugged it out with Sir Philip Green outside his Oxford Street HQ. It was clearly not a battle the handsome M&S boss relished. But I fancy he is enjoying, rather more, his fight with Sainsbury's equally striking...
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News
"If you pop into Tesco in Hungary, you can find strawberries piled up in pyramids. You'll never find those here"
I've got to admit I have a certain amount of sympathy with Ben Bradshaw's call to cut food and drink packaging. If it's not thick plastic wrapped around my broccoli, or pre-wrapped bananas, it's packets of tea with individually wrapped sachets....
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News
"Asda and Ocado are targeting the grocery market. M&S is focusing on non food. And Tesco is sizing up, well, everything"
All hell broke loose on the internet shopping news front this week. Asda announced plans to hire 1,800 staff as it gears up its web-based operations, Sainsbury's took its online offering to Northern Ireland, and M&S declared that it was keen to...