All articles by Richard Clarke – Page 3
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News
Somerfield: 'We don't compete with big four'
Somerfield has told the Competition Commission it does not compete with the big four - a statement that reinforces its strategy of positioning itself as a local grocer and not a major supermarket chain. In its submission to the grocery...
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News
The Co-op bares its soul
Below cost selling, price flexing and applying restrictive covenants to land. Typical of Tesco? Asda? Sainsbury's? No - it's the Co-operative Group. The society, which prides itself on its ethical approach to business, this week published...
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News
Nisa-Today's ripe for tie-up with Landmark?
A merger between Nisa-Today's and buying group Landmark is a distinct possibility following the collapse of the Nisa/Costcutter deal and the retirement of Nisa-Today's chairman Dudley Ramsden, according to wholesale trade sources. Calls...
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News
Home Office gets tough on 'problem premises'
Retailers with a history of selling booze to underage consumers will face extra test-purchasing stings, The Grocer has learned. The Home Office recently conducted a wave of checks focusing on suspect retailers and pubs - and the results...
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Comment and Opinion
This week's hot topic by Richard Clarke
After the fuss caused by the supermarkets' submissions to the Competition Commission, the inquiry team has turned its antennae towards suppliers. The Commission has written to 40 major manufacturers asking for details of the prices they charge...
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News
M&S: quality, not quantity
Planning authorities should take account of a brand's proposition before deciding whether or not to grant permission for a new store, Marks and Spencer has told the Competition Commission's grocery market inquiry. In its submission,...
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News
The great British food fight
The food industry has taken a battering in the two years since the publication of the government's Health White Paper, Choosing Health. First, the Food Standards Agency settled on traffic lights as the best approach to front-of-pack...
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News
FSA guns for fat content
A major processed food reformulation programme looks set to be a key element of the Food Standards Agency's drive to reduce fat and sugar consumption. The agency has yet to publish its draft strategy on the matter, and most food industry...
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News
M&S moves healthy ready meals into the mainstream
Marks and Spencer took healthy eating into the mainstream this week with the launch of a new range of healthy non-diet ready meals designed with government advice on consumption of calories, fat, sugar and salt in mind. Some 100 products...
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News
New EU food label rules hit technical stumbling block
A technical hitch could delay the implementation of new European rules on the labelling of foods with nutritional claims by re-opening a debate on nutrient profiling. The European Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation, which will control...
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News
Sainsbury's hailed for seizing lead in health
Sainsbury's has snatched the moral high ground on healthy eating from its major rivals, analysts said this week. In a report on the retailer's medium-term prospects, Deutsche Bank analysts said that they believed recent public comments by...
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News
'Multiples not toblame'
Critics who say the big supermarkets' enormous buying power is putting suppliers out of business are barking up the wrong tree, according to British Retail Consortium boss Kevin Hawkins. In a staunch defence of his members, the BRC...
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News
MSYS drive to show off local independents' festive spirit
The organisers of the My Shop Is Your Shop (MSYS) campaign are to mount a nationwide consumer PR drive this Christmas, designed to remind shoppers of how local independent retailers are involved in the community during the festive...
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News
Tesco trials boost Subway's target
Subway, the US sandwich chain, is to open three trial concessions in Tesco stores in a move that will give it a foothold in one of the major UK multiples for the first time, The Grocer can reveal. The Tesco pilot, due to start in the next...
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News
New decision possible on levy bodies' future
New farming and food minister Lord Rooker could tear up Lord Bach's verdict on the levy bodies' future and come to his own decision, Defra warned this week. A spokeswoman for the department said Lord Rooker had requested more time to get...
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News
Commission says tell us all about it
A team of six experts has been appointed by the Competition Commission to lead its investigation into the grocery market. The group, to be chaired by Commission chairman Peter Freeman, met for the first time on Wednesday to discuss how...
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News
You just mind the shop
Smaller retailers should not get involved in the Competition Commission's inquiry into the grocery industry but concentrate on more immediate issues such as serving customers, OFT chief executive John Fingleton warned this...
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News
Co-ops' work nourishes yields
The UK's three major dairy co-operatives are involved in a trial that could dramatically improve on-farm and factory efficiency in the cheese supply chain. Dairy Farmers of Britain in Wales, First Milk in Scotland and Milk Link in...
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News
Growers look to brighter times
Struggling English apple growers are likely to resist the temptation to quit - for now at least, according to sector bosses. Adrian Barlow, chief executive of trade body English Apples and Pears, said that in spite of a tough...
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News
Consumers relax over avian flu
Consumers are less concerned about the risks to human health posed by avian flu than they were before a dead bird infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus was discovered in Scotland, new findings indicate. A national survey of...
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