France: Carrefour is to appeal after a court in Evry, near Paris, fined the supermarket giant £3.21m for failing to pay some of its staff the legal minimum wage in France. The court found Carrefour had used a compulsory 20-minute break to bring earnings to the minimum level, which in France is £7.90 an hour. A spokeswoman confirmed that the company would appeal. "We have never paid less than the minimum salary," she added.

South Africa: Kraft Foods' Cadbury Dairy Milk has been named the first Fairtrade confectionery product in South Africa. Fairtrade Label South Africa awarded accreditation after the product met its requirements, including paying producers the minimum price of £1,200 per tonne of cocoa or the world market price, whichever is higher.

United States: Staff at Walmart, which has resisted a number of attempts to unionise staff, have formed a non-union group to represent employees on pay and conditions issues. The group, Organisation United for Respect at Walmart, or OUR Walmart for short, is part-funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, but is not a union group. It claims it already has thousands of members in the US and launched its website ourwalmart.org this week.

ConAgra Foods has bought the Marie Callender Pie Shops brand trademark in a £35m deal. Marie Callender operates the Marie Callender Restaurant and Bakery chain in California and South West America. Andre Hawaux, consumer foods president at ConAgra Foods, said the move was part of the company's strategy to invest in the convenient meals and snacks sectors.

Indonesia: Nestlé is to increase investment in its Indonesian operations. Arshad Chaudhry, president director of Nestlé Indonesia, has pledged an additional £61m investment in its new Karawang, West Java milk factory during 2013. A similar amount has already been invested in the operation. The factory will begin operating next year and will produce Milo chocolate powder and Cerelac baby cereal.