Food Chain Newsletter - April 2008
23 April 2008
Proposed new regulation on food labelling - views sought from NFU members
please visit www.nfuonline.com/x916.xml for more information
Local Food News
Local Food, a new £50 million grants programme, funded by the Big Lottery Fund, is aimed at making locally grown food accessible and affordable to local communities. It has been developed by a consortium of organisations and is managed by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. Local Food will look to distribute grants to a variety of food-related community projects across England. http://www.localfoodgrants.org/
The British Potato Council has set up an online 'Resource and Design Centre' for use by potatoes growers selling potatoes through farm shops (or similar). The site allows growers to design and produce tailor-made marketing material, including posters and recipe cards. http://britishpotatocouncil.pacificmarketingsuite.co.uk
The Quality Food Awards are open to both branded and own label products and can be entered by independent, multiple and convenience retailers and suppliers. The awards will be presented on 27 November 2008 at Battersea Evolution in London. http://www.talkingretail.com/pdfs/QFA-Call-For-Entries.pdf
The Great British Cheese Festival will move to Cardiff Castle and be held on 26 - 28 September 2008. The cheese market will continue to dominate the event with additional food markets also present. http://www.thecheeseweb.com
NFU members are invited to list their local food products and farm shops on the NFU's Local Food Finder found on NFU online http://www.nfuonline.com/x17049.xml
Retailer News
The Co-operative Group has bought ten former Bells and Jacksons from Sainsbury's, the convenience stores are located in the Midlands and northern England.
The Co-operative Group has revealed plans of a clearer marketing strategy to emphasise its ethical positioning.
Marks & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose revealed he is to move from Chief Executive to Executive Chairman. Sir Stuart will replace Non-executive Chairman Lord Burns in June, in a deal that will see him stay at M&S until 2011.
Morrisons has reported a 66% increase in full year profits and committed to returning surplus capital of £1bn to shareholders during 2008 and 2009. Profit before tax was £612m compared with £369m last year. Turnover grew by 4.1% to £13.0bn. Like-for-like store sales increased by 4.6% with customer numbers up an extra half million per week and average basket spend increasing.
Morrisons plan to build a new distribution centre by Sittingbourne in Kent, in order to service Morrisons stores in the South East.
Convenience chain Fresh Xpress (formerly Kwik Save) has gone into administration.
Sainsbury's is to open a new distribution centre in Sherburn in Elmet, West Yorkshire. Operations in Maltby and Skelton will be consolidated into this new site.
Sainsbury's new campaign will focus on value family meals, with Jamie Oliver fronting the new 'feed your family for a fiver'campaign. The emphasis will be on encouraging families to cook healthy, affordable meals from scratch.
Sainsbury's supply chain director Roger Burnley will take on additional responsibility for retail operations.
Tesco has met forecasts with an 11.8% increase in annual underlying pre-tax profit, for the year to 23 February. Group underlying pre-tax profit was £2.85bn, up from £2.55bn the year before, led by strong growth in its international and online businesses. Group sales increased by 11.1% to £51.8bn. Like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, in its core UK market rose 3.5%.
Tesco has revealed plans to start putting 'carbon labels' on its own-label products in tests next month. Carbon-count labels will be put on some orange juice, potatoes, energy-efficient light bulbs and washing detergent, stating the quantity in grams of CO2 equivalent put into the atmosphere by their manufacture and distribution. The count will be alongside the category average. Since announcing intention to carbon count up to 70,000 products, 15 months ago, Tesco has been working with the Carbon Trust.
Tesco has announced £170m of "budget busting savings" to help hard pressed consumers.
Tesco will buy seven stores from Somerfield, for approximately £100m. Speculation remains regarding the sale of the rest of the Somerfield estate.
Consumer News
Mintel's new E-commerce report, which looks at internet retailing in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, found UK online sales were worth E18.5bn (£12.8 bn) last year, compared to just E13bn in Germany, E7bn in France, Italy E1.1bn and Spain E1bn. Between 2005 and 2007 UK online sales grew by 75%.
Wells and Young's has become the first major brewer to promote the Red Tractor logo. The logo is now on all bottles of Young's Bitter, in a move to assure consumers that the ale is made using only British raw ingredients.
Food Service
Compass, the world's biggest caterer, is trading ahead of its expectations, with price rises and menu changes helping it to cope with higher food costs.
Mitchells & Butlers has revealed buoyant food sales this year. The Harvester and Toby Carvery pub owner - which serves around 110 million meals a year - saw a 4.8% increase in like-for-like food sales in the 27 weeks to 5 April
Whitbread, the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, has signed a five-year contract with global logistics provider Kuehne & Nagel to manage its food distribution in the UK. Whitbread currently manages the top brands in hotels, restaurants and coffee shops, including Premier Inn, Brewers Fayre, Beefeater, and Costa.
Organics
Defra has launched a free national information and advice service for farmers considering converting to organic production methods. The new advisory service will be delivered by Natural England.
The European Commission postponed the new 'bio' logo last month due to a similar logo already existing in Aldi in Germany. The 'bio' logo has now been withdrawn completely. The Commission will set up a competition this summer for the design of a new logo, open to all EU citizens, which will be implemented a year later than expected on 1 January 2010.
FCU Activity
Emma Harrison met with Sainsbury's to discuss its regional sourcing strategy.
Clare Smith attended her first SALSA meeting as a member of the SALSA Governance Board.
The NFU exhibited at Food Expo.
Dates for the Diary
The Real Food Festival will be held on 24 -27 April 2008 at Earls Court, London
During Farmhouse Breakfast Week 2008 over 1600 events were held. Farmhouse Breakfast Week 2009 will run from 25 - 31 January. www.farmhousebreakfast.com
