Waitrose achieved a record operating profit of £92.7m for the year to January 26, compared with £57m last year. John Lewis Partnership's share of the loss on Ocado, the Waitrose branded online shopping service, was up from £3.8m to £17.8m. Former Sainsbury senior manager Robin Tapper is to be head of marketing at the National Farmers' Union. Tapper, who worked in dairy, wine, meat and deli at the multiple and has latterly been running his own consultancy, joins the union on September 27. The Scottish Grocers' Federation has calculated that the Climate Change Levy costs an average c-store £646 a year. Pernod Ricard's drawn-out sale of its BWG business to venture capitalist Electra is due to be finalised in June or July. Due diligence processes were initially predicted to be complete by April. Nisa supplied c-store chain Select and Save is to open a fourth store under its new fascia in Birmingham on May 23. It launched its new look in February this year. A record £55,000 was raised for charity at the Wine and Spirit Trades' Benevolent Society banquet. Asda has cut the price of eye tests to £5 at its 39 in-store optical centres until July 19. Diageo has said it will take ownership of Seagram's Don Julio tequila business while Pernod Ricard will buy Seagram's Scotch whisky business Passport. President-elect of the Scottish Wholesale Association is Eddie Lynagh, general manager of Booker's Port Dundas branch in Glasgow. He succeeds Raymond Pia on June 8. Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt has decided not to refer Nestlé's acquisition of the Ski and Munch Bunch brands to the Competition Commission. Shareholders at Scottish & Newcastle have approved S&N's £1.2bn acquisition of Finnish brewer Hartwall. Wal-Mart is understood to be considering a move into the Russian market, according to local press reports. Purple carrots will be reintroduced to the UK market in Sainsbury's stores at the end of July. Grown in Suffolk, the carrots will be dark purple on the outside and orange on the inside. Cadbury Schweppes has made an offer to buy out the remaining 9.76% stake in its Indian subsidiary, Cadbury India. Marks and Spencer was judged Sandwich Retailer of the Year at the British Sandwich Association's annual awards ceremony. Tesco is increasing its top 50 CD album chart to a top 60 next month. The chain is also testing technology that will allow customers to compile CDs at Extra stores in Reading and Cambridge. {{NEWS }}

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