All articles by Grocer Staff – Page 3
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News
Premier ‘will need a strong second half to ease City fear’
Price hikes on some of the most iconic grocery brands on the supermarket shelf helped Premier Foods post a 43.5% sales jump to £1.29bn – but its gigantic debt is worrying investors. Britain’s biggest food manufacturer, which owns Hovis, Mr Kipling...
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P&H closes down its Winerite depot
Palmer & Harvey McLane, the UK’s biggest wholesaler, is to close its alcohol distribution company Winerite. The business, which operates out of a single depot in Leeds, will close towards the end of next month, affecting 70 jobs. The closure was...
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Costcutter reaps rewards of promotions
Consumers are buying more special offers to save money during the credit crunch, according to Costcutter. The c-store chain said its sales were up 6.2% for the year to date as a result of increased promotional activity. Sales had also been boosted...
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Police seize counterfeit Spar vodka
Counterfeit Spar vodka containing 160 times the legal safe limit of methanol has been seized by police and council officials in North London and Northumbria. More than 180 bottles of the vodka, which was an imitation of Spar brand Imperial vodka,...
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Frozen veg gains gourmet qualities
Birds Eye is venturing into gourmet vegetable dishes as part of a £15m three-year plan to rejuvenate the frozen vegetables market. The heavyweight investment will kick off next month with the launch of Tasty Veg, a new range of prepared vegetables...
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Green revamp for M&S pizza
M&S’s pizzas have undergone a makeover in preparation for a relaunch of its Italian range next week. M&S said more than 60% of the packaging in its pizzas had been stripped away, so almost 500 fewer tonnes of cardboard and 83 fewer tonnes of...
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Questions raised over how local Tesco’s produce really is
Environmental groups and independent retailers have poured scorn over Tesco’s local food claims. This week, Tesco reported a 40% year-on-year increase in sales of locally sourced food, and claimed to be on track to generate £500m in sales of local...
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News
Tesco secures local sweetcorn supply
Barfoots of Botley has struck a deal with Tesco to supply locally grown sweetcorn to stores in southern England. Local sweetcorn went into Hampshire and Sussex Tesco stores last weekend, while Isle of Wight sweetcorn was launched into the...
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Making the most of the multiples
How much of the market do the multiples command? According to Mintel they now account for more than 50% of sales, while TNS says they have a 61% share by value, headed by Tesco then Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, the hard discounters and...
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What the papers said
Apples could rot on their branches due to labour shortages, warns The Observer. Apple growers blame government restrictions on immigrant workers for a shortage of labour. “If we can’t get the pickers, there is a grave danger that apples will be...
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NewsTop-Up shop
Every week The Grocer’s mystery shoppers also visit convenience stores to check out the price of 10 commonly bought fast-moving food items across all grocery categories
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News
Frü adds trifle and summer pudding
Frü adds trifle and summer pudding Gü is hoping to almost double UK sales of its Frü Fruity Puds brand to £9m in the next year by adding two new products to the chilled fruit-based desserts range. The new products consist of traditional British summer favourites strawberry &...
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Hula Hoops turn Mexican
United Biscuits is hoping to eat into the tortilla-style market, which it claims is worth £100m and growing by 11% year-on-year. It has added a Mexican-inspired selection of crisps to its Hula Hoops range, which will be made from corn and have a...
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News
World News - 23rd August 2008
Lianhua profits reach for the sky SHANGHAI, CHINA: Lianhua Supermarket Holdings has seen its first-half pre-tax profit leap 44.2% year-on-year to 262m yuan (£20.5m). Sales rose 19.8% in the half to 10.74bn...
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News
Sales dip 6% but profits up at Roys
Independent retailer Roys of Wroxham has reported a 5.8% dip in full-year sales. Sales fell from £47.7m to £45m in the year to 26 January following the closure in 2007 of the retailer’s store in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, according to accounts filed...
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News
Crossing the road to another Co-op will cost you 70p more
The Co-operative Group is charging customers inconsistent prices for brands, The Grocer can reveal. A snapshot study by The Grocer found prices for brands varied by as much as 20% in society-owned stores, including shops on the same street in a...
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Dairylea campaign aims to bring out mums’ nostalgia
Kraft is tapping into mums’ nostalgia for Dairylea with a £6.5m campaign under the strapline ‘Dairylea… it’s never grown up’, to run for 13 weeks from next week. Packaging will be revamped and ads will aim to remind mums about the “goodness and...
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News
All change for newsagents around Jersey
Jersey CTN chain Channel Islands Newsagents has been sold to the Channel Island Wholesale Group. Channel Islands Wholesale Group holds the Spar contract for the Channel Islands and as part of the deal bought 12 of Channel Islands Newsagents’ 13...
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News
Asda’s milk price cuts see sales soar
Asda has reported a huge uplift in sales of milk during its price promotion last weekend. The supermarket sold 1.5 million more pints during the Friday-to-Sunday promotion than the previous weekend, according to a spokeswoman. The price of two...