All articles by Adam Leyland – Page 54
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News
The Big Eat: digesting the new plans to tackle obesity
Alan Johnson summed it up: "The problem is simple: we eat too much and we do too little exercise," said the secretary of state at the Department of Health. "The solution is more complex. From the nature of the food we eat, to the way our...
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News
Asda tests brand equity
Asda is putting the brand equity of Britain's food and drink brands to the test in an attempt to weed out needless duplication and offer customers greater choice. Earlier this summer the UK's second-largest supermarket delisted Princes tuna...
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News
Smoke or mirrors in retrospective inquiry?
As the Competition Commission prepares to wade through an estimated 11 million emails, and thousands of phone calls, from Asda and Tesco and its suppliers, the inquiry appeared this week to have reached a pivotal moment. Has it found the smoking gun...
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News
"Tesco's announcement that it would pay farmers up to an extra 5p a litre was a PR masterstroke"
As our Weigh It Up! campaign hit a new high point this week, with a pledge by the Conservative Party to back our calls for a review of the Nutrient Profiling Model, I thought I ought to talk about something else for a change. So let's look at ...
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News
This week's hot topic by Adam Leyland
One of the enduring strengths of Tesco is its ability to adapt to the needs of its customers. Whether it's the clever use of the data in its Clubcards, entrance sensors that monitor shopper levels to ensure there's enough till staff, or more...
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News
Slay's Perfect Serve
The mantra for Diageo right now in both the on and off-trades is 'the perfect serve'. The trouble with perfection is it often takes longer to achieve than one might like. Take the fortunes of Guinness. A surger kit was launched exclusively...
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News
"The hazard warning system runs contrary to the data inside it. Confused? Imagine what it's like for Jo Public"
I bought a bar of chocolate from Sainsbury's this week. It is looking at me lovingly as I write this. But I resist. New Year's resolutions and all that. No, I wanted to find out just how dangerous a bar of chocolate is. I had bought a Kit Kat a...
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Comment & Opinion
"The deal is an exciting prospect - but Robert Schofield ain't going to have it all his own way"
If it goes ahead, Premier's acquisition of RHM is an exciting prospect. It brings together many of Britain's best-known food brands, and with his old alma mater, United Biscuits, reportedly still in his sights, you can expect lots of headlines...
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News
"The remarkable thing about this market is the resilience and optimism of wholesalers like Sir Anwar"
It's been a busy week for Sir Anwar Pervez. On Tuesday, the founder of the Bestway Group celebrated 30 years as a cash & carry wholesaler with a lavish bash for 1,000 guests at Grosvenor House in London. On Wednesday, he was treating journalists...
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News
"Where King started by growing the top line, it's interesting that Rose started by hacking back costs"
Stuart Rose once famously slugged it out with Sir Philip Green outside his Oxford Street HQ. It was clearly not a battle the handsome M&S boss relished. But I fancy he is enjoying, rather more, his fight with Sainsbury's equally striking...
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News
"If you pop into Tesco in Hungary, you can find strawberries piled up in pyramids. You'll never find those here"
I've got to admit I have a certain amount of sympathy with Ben Bradshaw's call to cut food and drink packaging. If it's not thick plastic wrapped around my broccoli, or pre-wrapped bananas, it's packets of tea with individually wrapped sachets....
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News
"Asda and Ocado are targeting the grocery market. M&S is focusing on non food. And Tesco is sizing up, well, everything"
All hell broke loose on the internet shopping news front this week. Asda announced plans to hire 1,800 staff as it gears up its web-based operations, Sainsbury's took its online offering to Northern Ireland, and M&S declared that it was keen to...
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News
"It's still a lot easier to put the blame on food manufacturers than to make people get off their lazy, fat derrières"
In the past six months the government has finally started to widen the remit of public health minister Caroline Flint, so that exercise as well as diet is considered in the ongoing obesity obsession. Two years on from the government White Paper,...
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Comment & Opinion
"The message is clear: let the market be policed by consumers. They can think for themselves, you know"
At last a bit of sense in the pre-watershed 'junk food' advertising row. Ofcom asked consumers what they thought about the mooted ban on HFSS foods. Their response can be summed up in three words: DON'T PATRONISE US. Consumers, even the...
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News
"Today's commercials feature Feta cheese and jingles about Omega-3. That's got to be a good thing, hasn't it?
A baptism of fire. That's one way to describe my first week on The Grocer. On GMTV (twice actually) to talk about Tesco's results. Meeting and greeting at the Gramias on Wednesday night, while celebrating the best in food and drinks...
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's comment: What would Walker do with Woolworths?
The man who “masterminded” the sale of Focus DIY to Cerberus for £1. On paper, it hardly looks like an achievement – until you realise Steve Johnson sold with it £174m of debt while negotiating a £40m payment to bondholders. It’s a little bit like...
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News
Editors comment: Banking on Tesco to make its latest Big Idea work
With the Competition Commission unable to conclude its inquiry into the grocery supermarket industry, we’ve been kept waiting for Tesco’s next ‘Big Idea’, the masterstroke we’ve all come to expect that will see Tesco disappear away from the...
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Comment & Opinion
Editor's Comment: 'London 2012 can boost British food'
What an inspiration the Olympics have been, providing a welcome if temporary lift to our spirits from the lousy weather and the even lousier economy. Actually, I sense the Games will lift the spirits far longer than the recession we now appear to...