Cost of living insight and opinion
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Comment & OpinionEvery extra cost makes affordable food harder to deliver
After 21 years at the BRC, Andrew Opie has one parting message for policymakers: every tax, charge and regulation added to the food chain comes at a cost to affordability and jobs.
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Comment & OpinionWould you listen to me more with a pint and a pie?
When politicians are announcing new policies or trying to curry favour with the electorate, what they’re choosing to eat or drink in front of the camera matters, says Dan Crossley, executive director of the Food Ethics Council
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Comment & OpinionHow the government keeps getting grocery wrong
Three recent headlines promised tough action on grocery pricing, but all three collapsed on contact with reality, says David Sables, CEO of Sentinel Management Consultants
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Comment & OpinionYour Voice: Huel, health consciousness and cost of living
After the CMA’s approval of Danone’s acquisition of Huel, the question now is whether Danone can grow the brand without making it less ‘Huel’
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Comment & OpinionBritain’s diet is at a tipping point but changing diets means changing the system too
The UK is falling well short of the Planetary Health Diet’s targets. Retailers, not shoppers, hold the keys to fixing it, says Richard Bourns, chief commercial officer at Lidl GB
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Comment & OpinionWill Scotland’s radical price cap plan see the light of day?
Scottish first minister John Swinney is a modern-day Braveheart taking on supermarket price inflation with a barmy plan to cap the price of essential goods
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Comment & OpinionThe healthy food tax hiding in the lunchbox aisle
Healthy packed lunches cost 45% more than unhealthy ones, but the gap varies widely by retailer, suggesting this is a category management problem that should be solvable, says Patrick Finlay, MD at The Category Management Company
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Comment & Opinion‘Price gouging’? Grocery retailers hardly have the chance
Grocery retailing is fiercely competitive – if retailers get anywhere near being comfortable, they pay, says Jeremy Garlick, partner at Insight Traction
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Comment & OpinionThe CMA cleared loyalty pricing. So why is Aldi reopening the debate?
Surprise, surprise: a change of prime minister, another pledge to tackle the cost of living crisis, and the loyalty pricing debate is back
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Comment & OpinionTomorrow’s luxury booze is already in the barrel
Discounting should be the last resort for premium alcohol brands, unless they want to damage long-term equity, says Simon Massey, founder of Neverland
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Comment & OpinionCan tariff suspensions make your weekly shop cheap?
The latest round of tariff suspensions on food and fertiliser imports has been sold as cost of living relief, but the impact on prices will be limited, says Sahana Suraj, a research assistant at the University of Sussex
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Comment & OpinionAfter Andy Burnham’s quick wins, the real challenge begins
Burnham’s 10-year plan for Britain needs to extend to the far more complex challenge of fixing business rates and employment costs
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Comment & OpinionWill Andy Burnham be the radical change our food system needs?
As we begin to hear who will be filling many of the top posts in this new government, we should quickly get a clearer picture of how the Burnham administration plans to tackle the many challenges currently facing the British food system
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Comment & OpinionYour Voice: obesity policy, BNPL limits and low & no wines
Advertising has little to no causal effect on long-term childhood obesity or BMI. True public health drivers lie in addressing social inequality, food affordability and accessibility
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Comment & OpinionIncoming PM Andy Burnham must put food at heart of the agenda
As Andy Burnham prepares to become prime minister on Monday, food policy must finally get the priority it deserves, says Kath Dalmeny, CEO of Sustain
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Comment & OpinionIf Andy Burnham wants a fast win, the Good Food Cycle awaits
There is huge speculation about what former Manchester mayor Andy Burnham may do when it comes to food strategy and health
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Comment & OpinionHow grocers should respond to new checks on buy now, pay later
From 15 July, BNPLs will now be mandated to run affordability checks for borrowers – meaning several millions of people will no longer be able to use it. Chris Bennett of Fair For You offers advice on how to respond
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Comment & OpinionThe Grocer Gold Awards should galvanise industry to engage the new government
A new prime minster is days away – the industy must seize the moment to make its case, says Ian Wright, partner at Acuti Associates
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Comment & OpinionWhy the government must not delay healthier food reforms
Delaying food health measures would be a false economy, says Beth Bradshaw, policy and advocacy lead at Obesity Health Alliance
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Comment & OpinionCan Felix deliver the step change food redistribution needs?
The Felix name will need to cut through into the consciousness of the public beyond the sector, with a major consumer-facing push already planned