more supermarket news & analysis – Page 918
-
News
Plea for co-ops to be freed up to compete
Britain's farming co-operatives need to be freed from the constraints of competition law to enable them to raise their game and become class acts like their counterparts abroad, according to a report from First Milk. The...
-
News
"Suppliers watch out - Andy Bond has no intention of dropping Asda's combative price stance"
It's been a tough year for Asda's head honcho Andy Bond. What with those pesky members of the GMB union, widespread criticism over price-cutting tactics that saw £100m wiped off the value of the banana sector alone, suppliers unhappy over...
-
News
"Once again, Tesco has raised the bar. It is in competition to catch up that the planet will benefit"
My morning ablutions were rudely interrupted, on Monday, by Stuart Rose, announcing on Radio 4 a dramatic new £200m eco-plan. I cut myself shaving as he reeled off some of the 100 exciting initiatives, including plans to go carbon neutral, use...
-
News
"It's clear that supermarket CEOs are the new politicians."
The construction industry is a horrific polluter. And I read recently that to make a simple gold ring requires five tons of water, consumes 40kg of CO2 and produces 20 tonnes of mine waste. But the food and drink industry is always top of mind...
-
News
"Brown has pledged retailers will not screw farmers with price cuts on meat. Perhaps retailers should do the same"
Sabotage, extortion, allotments. What an eventful week it's been. As The Grocer was going to press, Philip McHugh was due in court yesterday (Friday) charged with two counts of blackmail and bomb hoaxing against Tesco following the closure of 14...
-
News
"If Morrisons has failed to act quickly enough, it won't have done itself any favours"
Just how many warnings does a retailer need? Morrisons could now face criminal prosecution for the Scottish E.coli outbreak. On the one hand, it's easy to sympathise. There's been a huge increase in the number of food scares in the past...
-
News
"Asda's price for a single four-pint carton of milk was up to £1.34. That's a 34% increase on its controversial twofer"
I've been reading stories suggesting 'The End of Cheap Food' since, ooh, April, possibly earlier. Drought, floods, China, India, biofuel, all these and more were cited as reasons why wheat, milk, butter meat and other commodities were set to...
-
News
"I scribble furiously. This is gold dust. The Wal-Mart subsidiary is secretive about its numbers. I could win a Pulitzer"
It's 8:30. Darren Blackhurst, the guitar-strumming food trading director at Asda, is making a gung-ho speech at a Christmas conference for Asda's 350 store managers . And up pops a powerpoint slide that is every journalist's wet dream....
-
News
"The 11m emails identified cases of 'unconscionable behaviour'. The supermarkets are not out of the woods yet"
The Association of Convenience Stores was doing its best, this week, to put a brave face on the inquiry. It described the provisional findings as a "curate's egg" (see p26). For ACS and independent convenience stores generally it looks like a...
-
News
"Our food price inflation figures won't grab headlines but the story is no less interesting for that"
As of this week Somerfield will no longer feature in The Grocer 33. You can call it foresight, if you wish, as The Co-operative Group confirmed its interest, on Wednesday, in swallowing it whole, but in fact we took the decision for a very...
-
News
"Are the supermarkets finally relaxing their grip on food prices? Or is oil still the main culprit behind inflation?"
Back in March, our price tracking showed food inflation at 3.1%. This was in marked contrast to one particular and highly selective study, but tallied almost exactly - indeed spookily - with figures from the major multiples. In the past...
-
News
"Have the supermarkets been profiteering from food price inflation? Here are three factors in their defence"
The numbers don't lie. There's been a lot of speculation that supermarkets have been profiteering from food price inflation. Here, in The Grocer/OC&C survey of the top 150 manufacturers (see pp4, 30-37), is strong evidence that they have. Of the...
-
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...
-
News
Price Survey
Iceberg lettuce prices have plummeted at Asda, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Waitrose and Somerfield this week but the order of our top six supermarkets has remained unchanged. Asda is still The Grocer 33&'s cheapest supermarket for...
-
News
The Grocer 33: 2006 End of year annual review
Asda has been crowned the cheapest supermarket for the ninth year in a row. The retailer has once again dominated the pricing tables for the past 12 months and claimed The Grocer 33's lowest priced shopping basket for 30 of the past 50...
-
News
Asda makes cutting queues priority with self-scan drive
Asda is rolling out self-scan checkouts to 270 supermarkets as it looks to cut queue times by 15%.The move, estimated to cost more than £20m, comes as it prepares to start trials of self-scan in its non food Living and George...
-
News
THE BIG PICTURE
The GMB union hosted the first of a series of screenings of the film &'Wal-Mart:The High Cost of Low Price&' across the country this week in venues close to Asda depots.It coincided with the scheduled start of the ballot...
-
News
Consumers hail price cuts by Tesco Ireland
Tesco in Ireland is to cut the price of up to 5,000 products previously covered by the country&'s groceries order.The move follows a sustained campaign by Irish consumers&' champion Eddie Hobbs.TV personality Hobbs -...
-
News
Sir Ken plans to bow out after 50 years in charge
Analysts say Sir Ken Morrison&'s retirement from Morrisons in 2008 will leave the supermarket group &"weaker for his absence&".This week, at the retailer&'s agm, Sir Ken, who has been chairman of Morrisons since...