All articles by Adam Leyland – Page 49
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NewsEditor's Comment: Success of independents and Morrisons has changed Bond's mind on smaller stores
The demise of Thresher and Woolies was no surprise. Recession hunts out the weak and infirm. But who would have predicted, a year ago, that Aldi a discounter, with a strong price message would go through more bosses than Portsmouth FC?
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Editor's Comment: Warburtons entry into bagged snacks is bizarre - and I like it
Warburtons? Making crisps? Now that's what you call a brand extension and a half. Yet you can see why. Exactly a year since Walkers launched Red Sky, sales of the premium potato chips have come from nowhere to challenge established players...
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Editor's Comment: Only half the global supermarket share prices are back at pre-Lehman levels
Tim Mason, the Fresh & Easy chief, has cashed in quite a few chips these past weeks. Others are dealing, too: Sir Terry Leahy, Richard Brasher, Colin Holmes. And who can blame them?
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NewsWill Kraft be able to stop the brain drain at Cadbury?
Can Kraft win the hearts and keep the brains of Cadbury’s best people? Perhaps, if Irene Rosenfeld respects the Cadbury culture, says Adam Leyland
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Editor's Comment: When Sir Terry goes, contrast the succession planning with Morrisons
What is it about Morrisons that, like the national football team, it can’t seem to find an English manager? To be fair, after Marc ‘Sven Goran’ Bolland, the Irish Dalton Philips is more of a Martin O’Neill than a Fabio Capello.
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Editor's Comment: I'm not angry with Cadbury, hedge funds or even Kraft. I'm angry with dozy City analysts
If I'm feeling a little sad at the sale of Cadbury, it isn't because I think Kraft is an evil, low-growth corporate raider. As our recent Top Products survey confirmed, Kraft won the top launch in two categories, with Kenco and Mikado, and Mikado...
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Editor's Comment: Reducing Mars' satfat content will be worth five-year wait
As well as fresh snow, this week brought bucketloads of policy-related proposals for consumer and public affairs experts to ponder, with the imminence of a general election providing plenty of impetus.
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: VAT hike gives January sale claims an added élan
It’s the January sales and, once again, Britain’s supermarkets are offering some spiffing deals…
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: Grocery not only weathered the recession, but delivered a host of surprises
If some of the more memorable themes of this year's Top Products Survey seem familiar own-label losing share to brands; promotions reaching record levels; food price inflation; supplier consolidation; and the revival of several big...
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NewsMe, myself & Irene: Cadbury chief Todd Stitzer talks
In the 14 weeks since Kraft went hostile, Takeover Panel rules have limited Todd Stitzer and the Cadbury senior management team to now-tired rhetoric around Kraft's "derisory offer". On Monday day 32 in the rigidly timetabled takeover...
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: Industry senses something really bad is still to come
Surreal is one way to describe Cadbury's Christmas party for the media on Tuesday. Agonising is another. Along with assorted senior communications execs, CEO Todd Stitzer and chairman Roger Carr took time out of their busy preparations to defend...
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Editor's Comment: Obesity is caused by people eating and drinking too much
After this issue goes to press, I am due to meet the Food Standards Agency for lunch. So what will I be talking about as I pick, nervously, over my strangely discoloured food?
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: Choosing the 35 top women in the industry was a political nightmare
Like a prick at the proverbial lesbian commitment ceremony, I feel uncomfortable writing about women in grocery, the subject of this week's cover story in The Grocer.
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News
Revealed: how the FSA spun our calorie count cock-up story
The Grocer's exclusive story revealing how the error in calorie count limits prompted the FSA to put a confusing spin on the news, writes Adam Leyland
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Comment & OpinionEditor's Comment: Upping the calorie count will turn reds to amber and ambers to green
We are in dangerous territory here. The Grocer is playing with fire. But if a report crosses our desk showing the government’s recommended daily calorie calculations were WRONG, it’s our duty to report it. I’m sure the Food Standards Agency, along with the Department of Health, would like to sweep ...
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Editor's Comment: So consumers ignore healthy-eating labels – and get slimmer anyway
This has been an important week in the obesity debate, with new research based on the latest figures (up to 2007) showing that a 30-year rise in child obesity has been reversed.
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: Media has ignored the most obvious profiteering since Al Capone
Next month, the BBC plans a new series called Ripoff Britain. There’s nothing original about the name, and you won’t be surprised to hear supermarkets feature extensively.
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: Can Marcia do a Johnny Rotten for Roosters?
The emergence of several new brands in the fresh produce category is intriguing. I've always found the fresh produce fixture in supermarkets enormously frustrating.
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Editor's Comment: Sir Terry's latest role model must be Swampy
While Sir Terry Leahy's comments on "woefully low" education standards made front page news, his IGD speech reminded me of a secondhand car, polished up to look new.
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Editor's Comment: Shoppers are smarter than we give them credit for
Asda selling bananas for 46p/kg? At least it's using alcohol sales to subsidise the cost of fresh produce rather than the other way round, as is often the case. But as the meaning of value is undermined we mess with the shopper's brains at...