It’s been another busy week on The Grocer.

The most sobering news this week was the report that Nestlé will be cutting 16,000 jobs over the next two years. It’s a stark illustration of how challenging the market is for fmcg giants. It’s also prompted Kraft Heinz to break up. And we have an interview this week with new Heinz UK boss Marta Pilczuk.

On the other hand, Christmas is coming and supermarkets have kicked off their festive recruitment drives. We’re tracking who is hiring how many here.

It’s also cheering to be able to report that Roberts Bakery has been saved. The three factories have been snapped up by the Boparan Private Office and Warburtons. It’s an intriguing prospect to wonder what Ranjit Singh Boparan, the so-called Chicken King, will do in the plant bread market and why he would be interested. Chicken sandwiches anyone? But seriously, Boparan has done a credible job growing his Elkes Biscuits business with M&S, while its Gunstones bakery bakes around a third of the country’s hot cross buns.

Talking of chicken, anyone who’s been to a high street or shopping mall lately is likely to have come across either a Wingstop or a Popeyes – they’re everywhere! And they’ll soon be joined by other big-name US fried chicken chains like Dave’s Hot Chicken and, next year, Raising Cane’s. Then there’s old favourite KFC, which is planning to expand just as aggressively in the coming years. It appears Brits have fallen even harder for fried chicken, with TikTok doing its bit to make new openings into viral events. When will it stop? Not any time soon, according to this week’s cover feature.

On the retailer side, The Grocer has broken a number of important stories. Backed by brilliant data journalism, we’ve identified a marked change of direction at Morrisons as it’s scaled back its use of loyalty pricing. At the same time, Morrisons has brought back a couple of popular promotions it had scrapped earlier in the year as a result of store manager feedback.

Another important exclusive was my story on the Co-op commercial restructure and the surprise departure of Sinead Bell and Adele Balmforth. It’s also the subject of my leader this week, in which I’ve argued that there are still more questions than answers.

On the innovation side, an interesting new development has been the emergence of a ‘fourth tier’. It’s a trend that both brands and supermarkets are pursuing.

Another question we’ve considered is the future of protein. As we reported last week, fitness influencer Joe Wicks pissed off quite a few people when he launched his Killer protein bars – claiming the category’s use of ultra processing causes all sorts of bad stuff, from diarrhoea to cancer. We’re hot on Joe’s tail again with our Focus On Protein. This piece takes a closer look at the Killer Bar. Our comparison finds that many of Killer’s 96 ingredients aren’t in the Grenade, Optimum Nutrition, Huel (and other) products Wicks has called out. So, who’s misleading whom? How much of a risk are these products to people’s health really? And what impact is all this going to have on consumer demand?

Talking of social media celebrities, you have to read our Sides ice cream scoop (!). As we report, the brand has disappeared from Iceland after just six months. On the one hand it’s a seasonal line, so maybe not that surprising, but on the other hand, maybe it shows that even The Sidemen, the influencers who famously introduced viral hit Prime Energy, aren’t guaranteed success in this market.

Following the huge viral success of Tesco and M&S with their birthday cake and strawberries and cream sandwiches, Aldi unveiled its own take on the sweet sandwich trend, launching a Sandwich Cake. Not very original perhaps, but check out the price.

It’s also good to see Hotel Chocolat having another crack at supermarket distribution focused on listings of its Velvetiser drinking chocolate lines. Apparently 1.5 million families in the UK own a Velvestiser machine. Who knew? And limited distribution via its shops has meant many struggle to top up regularly. Such is the brand’s belief in the channel, it’s installed additional manufacturing lines at its Huntingdon factory.

On the alcoholic brands side, it was no surprise to see that Peroni has ditched its Stile Capri lager. Big beer just can’t seem to get innovation right at the moment. No wonder so many are looking to diversify into other categories and income streams. As well as Damm is doing, it’s surely significant that its new factory in Bedford has significant soft drinks packaging capacity.

And finally there’s also been an almighty fallout between the ASA and Red Tractor. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? We would love to know your thoughts.

In fact we would love to know your thoughts on all of our stories. Or is there anything we’ve missed? We’re all ears! Get in touch via LinkedIn or adam.leyland@thegrocer.co.uk.

Topics