David Lidington has succeeded Peter Ainsworth as Conservative environment, food and rural affairs spokesman. Ainsworth has stepped down because his wife is suffering from cancer. Lidington was appointed shadow minister for agriculture and fisheries in May 2002. Pernod Ricard is set to complete the sale of its Anglo Irish wholesale subsidiary BWG to investment bank Electra Partners "by the back end of June" according to an Electra spokesman. Budgens and Musgrave Group are still in talks after Musgrave, which already has a 28% stake in Budgens, made an approach to buy in May. Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide is running an online internet banner campaign this month to support its new Decide & Deliver service, which is an electronic delivery function which allows shoppers to have online orders delivered to one of 16,000 participating post office branches. Nisa-Today's will install state of the art voice activated warehouse management systems to depots at Stoke and Scunthorpe next year as part of its major systems overhaul, said head of IT Wayne Swallow. The government is set to make a policy statement on PPG6 planning regulations for out of town retail developments in July, following consultations on the Planning Green Paper. South-west convenience chain Conveco will serve as a testbed for Nisa's new category management service on chilled food. The web based system enables retailers to download planograms tailored to their chiller cabinets in minutes. Sainsbury has 39 Local c-stores, with 25 more planned for this financial year. Two Locals are scheduled to open this month and three in July. Nisa plans to introduce fresh sandwiches and milk into its central distribution operation this year to provide the critical mass to make five deliveries a week to all members. Newsagents' insurance supplier NFRN Mutual is offering household as well as shop cover for newsagents in the UK from July 1. It will also extend its offer to National Federation of Retail Newsagents members in the Republic of Ireland. Tesco ceo Sir Terry Leahy and Morrisons' chairman Sir Kenneth Morrison have been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Leahy has also become UMIST Chancellor. Evesham-based fresh produce supplier Primafruit is to pay £11,500 to the British Software Alliance for using unlicensed software. Welsh food wholesaler and retailer Cegin Cymru's annual turnover has exceeded £1m. The company has eight retail outlets. Tate & Lyle has reported a 41% increase in pre-tax profit from £113m to £159m for the year to March 31. Group sales dropped from £4.15bn to £3.94bn over the same period. The company reduced net debt by £324m to £639m. Cargill Integra has acquired meat and poultry processor Meadowbrook Foods. {{NEWS }}

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