The Somerfield top brass were in jolly mood when one of my colleagues met up to hear the news on their interim results. The tone for the day was set early in the morning at the company's analysts meeting, when one top pundit congratulated them on having outperformed Sainsbury at Christmas. I'm not sure whether that says more about the state of Sainsbury than it does Somerfield. But you can see why Alan Smith and co were chuffed. Anyway, my colleague was also amused to hear a little tale from the days when David Simons roamed the corridors of Somerfield House. Apparently Simons was adamant that all corporate information was headed as Somerfield Kwik Save. He was, it seems, worried that Kwik Save Somerfield would have been misread (think about it!). Or, as events proved, read correctly. While it was a busy week for retailer trading statements (everybody too scared not to release theirs it seems), I still had time for another New Year knees-up. This time ­ with my liver squealing for mercy ­ it was off to the Savoy for an excellent Confectioners' Benevolent Fund bash. A fair sprinkling of grocery greats mingled with the toffee folk ("How was your Christmas darling? We went to Florida for the golf, but we had to scrape the frost off the fairways"). But my memory of the evening was of an auction of a soccer shirt signed by the England team. Alas, despite the best efforts of the auctioneer this only raised a £350. It seems England's new Swedish coach has a fair old job on his hands if that paltry response is anything to go by. {{COUNTERPOINT }}

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