A trade association is to be launched to look after the affairs of the independent grocery trade in Northern Ireland. With a mid-March launch pencilled in, the search is also in hand for a chief executive for the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association. Although the suspension of the Assembly puts in doubt participation in a launch event by a locally elected politician, the organisation is still to be set up next month. With 29% of the market, the independent trader sector is looking good but continues to slip marginally year by year as the impact of multiples is felt. Most major name symbol group wholesalers are already behind the development. Plans to establish the organisation first emerged almost two years ago (The Grocer, April 18, 1998). {{NEWS }}