the grocer new product awards 2015

NPA night was a delight!

Sir, Thank you for putting on a fabulous awards ceremony for the New Products Awards last Friday. Very professional and yet extremely relaxed. We thoroughly enjoyed the day and met some wonderful new contacts and old friends, and were so excited to receive our commendation for Ten Acre crisps. Next year we’re going for the big one!

Mark Leddy, marketing manager, Yumsh Snacks


Bags. And baskets

Sir, ‘Carry on chaos’ (26 September, p34) raises excellent points about the bag levy. However, it didn’t mention one key topic - basket theft. What of the cost to the environment of manufacturing the thousands of new baskets that will be ordered over the coming years?

The bag levy will most likely lead to an increase in basket disappearances and stores must look at protecting their baskets by placing them away from the doors, with retrofit tags. These steps should drastically cut down incidents of theft.

Russell Holland, global account director, Checkpoint Systems


UK Eco-Emballages?

Sir, I thought the government got 4p from every 5p bag charge for its ‘good causes’. Who exactly is going to pick which charities get this money? I suspect whoever it turns out to be should treat it as a windfall, because once people get used to taking bags to shops, retailers won’t be selling many.

Why on earth don’t we have a ‘joined-up’ packaging policy from government? The French have had Eco-Emballages for decades and we still have nothing like it.

Lesley Whittle, via thegrocer.co.uk


Black tea can be cool

Sir, Black tea is falling out of favour, according to your Focus on Hot Beverages (5 September, p39). Every corporation has a brand that gathers dust at the back of the shelf, but what if we gave those unloved tea brands the Marmite treatment? After we had finished our work on the brand, Marmite was a figure of speech. Any corporation that ignores a chance to connect with a once-loved brand is missing a golden opportunity.

In packaging terms, black tea sometimes looks dated. There are also opportunities to introduce flavoured black teas. The health benefits of black tea are well known, yet rarely highlighted.

Kim Van Elkan, MD, Hornall Anderson