All AF Blakemore articles – Page 9
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Profiles and QandAsThe Grocer Cup: Who is your star of 2011?
Dampening demand, rising costs, increasing competition… it’s been a year of mounting pressure and seismic shifts. So who’s defied the odds to turn in the best performance? We need you to pick the winner of The Grocer Cup for Outstanding Achievement, to be announced at the IGD Food Industry Awards on 11 October
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NewsThe Grocer Power 100
Who are the most powerful figures in the grocery industry today? The Grocer team undertook exhaustive research to determine the key players, from the bosses of the biggest retailers and manufacturers to opinion formers, commodity traders, bankers, celebrity chefs and NGOs. After weeks of painstaking deliberations, we present the rankings, ...
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NewsCapper fits chiller doors to save energy
Capper & Co has become the latest Spar member to test the impact of installing doors on its in-store dairy chiller cabinets. If the trial at Cefn Glas, Bridgend, is successful, the doors could be installed in further company stores....
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News'We were the biggest before and we’re still the biggest': an interview with Peter Blakemore
AF Blakemore bought Capper & Co last month, creating a Spar wholesaler with a £1.1bn turnover and a 45% share of Spar. In his first interview since the acquisition, Peter Blakemore talks to Elinor Zuke about the takeover, Spar and Big Society
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News
Capper buyout makes Blakemore a Spar giant
AF Blakemore & Son has confirmed the purchase of fellow Spar wholesaler Capper & Co.The deal, for an undisclosed sum, puts an end to more than a month of speculation and transforms Blakemore into the runaway dominant force within...
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NewsBlakemore ‘poised to snap up Capper & Co’
Wholesale experts have predicted major consolidation in Spar UK amid rumours that AF Blakemore is looking to buy fellow Spar wholesaler Capper & Co. Capper confirmed this week it had been in talks with another company "for some time"...
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News
Landmark names its new vice chairman
Blakemore Wholesale MD Sam Wilcox has become vice chairman of Landmark Wholesale after sitting on the buying group's board for eight years.He has replaced Brian Metcalfe of DBC Foodservice, who steps down from the position ahead of his...
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News
Marwood to leave Spar MD role next summer
Wholesale rivals have paid tribute to industry stalwart Jerry Marwood, who this week announced he was stepping down as Spar UK MD next summer "to seek new challenges". Marwood joined the company as retail director in 1996 and returned in...
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Thousand jobs axed as suppliers close factories
Nearly 1,000 jobs in grocery have been lost in recent weeks as tough trading conditions force factory, depot and store closures.Red Mill Snack Foods' crisp plant in Wednesbury, owned by Tayto, is to close next month with the loss of 300...
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AF Blakemore hires McCain’s Bromwich as its sales director
Tony Bromwich has been appointed sales director at the wholesale arm of AF Blakemore & Son. Bromwich is to join at the end of the month from frozen specialist McCain Foods (GB) where he was retail sales controller.
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NewsPower List 2010: Power vacuum
The past year has seen an extraordinary shift in the balance of power. With the toughest market conditions since the early 90s, coalition politics, the euro on a precipice and markets in confusion, the new leaders are struggling to fill the void
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News
Spar shoppers sink teeth into revamped fresh meat offering
Sales of fresh meat in Spar stores supplied by AF Blakemore have soared 58% over the past year as part of a drive to attract more top-up food shoppers.The 700 Spar stores had benefited from a relaunch of its meat range a year ago, said...
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News
Asco closes store while suppliers wait for cash
Asco Stores has closed its only store, in Warrington, after just four and a half months trading. "This store is now closed for a temporary period," a sign on the door reads. "We will reopen in the near future. Apologies for any...
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News
Second foodservice depot for Blakemore
AF Blakemore has bought a second foodservice depot as part of plans to double the size of its foodservice business.The 80,000 sq ft depot in Oulton, Leeds, is being renovated to give it a multi-temperature storage capability and is set...
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Tates takes two off The Co-op to grow
Tates has bought two stores from The Co-operative Group and will turn one of them into its third Eurospar store.AF Blakemore's retail arm will spend £250,000 converting the sites in Wales, which became available when the Office of Fair...
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Profiles and QandAs
Blakemore’s Liptrot exits after one year
John Liptrot has left his job as sales director for the delivered wholesale business at AF Blakemore after just over a year in the post.Liptrot, formerly MD of the now defunct buying group Key Lekkerland, is taking up the role of MD of...
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NewsDuty fraud results in 40% booze sales loss
Angry wholesalers are demanding the government takes drastic action to combat duty fraud and have released figures to show the "devastating" impact the worsening problem is having on their businesses.
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NewsKPMG hands back the keys to 480 Threshers
The administrator of First Quench Retailing, which ran Threshers, The Local and Wine Rack stores, is to hand the keys back to the landlords of 480 Threshers stores. KPMG had appointed property agent Christie & Co to sell the stores,...
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News
The Thresher chest
First Quench Retailing may have gone, but its customers haven't. What should c-stores be doing to take advantage? Graham Holter reports
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News
Blakemore appoints ex-Somerfield man as trading director
AF Blakemore has appointed Mike Boardman as trading director, replacing David White, who retired due to ill health.Boardman joins from Somerfield, where he was head of ambient trading, following the supermarket group's acquisition by The...