All articles by Stefan Chomka
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News
Mars aims ethnic meal kit at the gastrosexual
Mars Food is using Seeds of Change, its organic foods business, as the blueprint for the launch of its first new brand in nine years – targeting the ‘gastrosexual’. PurAsia, a six-strong range of ethnic meal kits, is launching exclusively into...
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News
Brooke Bond returns to the British market
Brooke Bond has returned to UK shelves after an absence of more than 20 years. It is one of two leading Indian brands that Unilever is trialling in the UK to test the market for ethnic products. Brooke Bond Bru is the top coffee brand in India and...
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News
Lee Kum Kee’s retail range targets mainstream grocery
Chinese brand Lee Kum Kee is making its first major foray into mainstream UK grocery in its 120-year history with a retail range designed to appeal to Western tastes. A premium oyster sauce and a Double Deluxe soy sauce will mark the company’s move...
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News
Jordans overhauls its ‘cluttered’ brand range
Jordans is overhauling its entire cereals portfolio by introducing more consistent pack designs, rationalising its sub-brands and reducing the number of lines in a bid to regain share lost to rivals such as Dorset Cereals. Kicking off later this...
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News
Nestlé prepares raft of Christmas products
Nestlé Confectionery has announced a raft of developments for Christmas 2008 including the launch of products that play on the heritage of its Quality Street brand, the overhaul of After Eight and the introduction of more environmentally-friendly...
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News
Duracell turns up the power
Duracell is launching its most powerful alkaline batteries to date as demand for high-drain battery-operated products such as digital cameras soars. Owner P&G has improved the power of both its Duracell Plus and Ultra brands, both of...
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News
Campaign trail: Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola Enterprises aims to strengthen its position in adult soft drinks with a new advert for its burgeoning Oasis brand. The ad, with the tagline 'For people who don't like water', is part of a £4m spend including TV and outdoor advertising...
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News
Innocent set for green and brown smoothies
Green and even brown-coloured smoothies could soon be making their debuts under the Innocent brand after more than six years of development work, The Grocer has learnt. A number of kiwi recipes, including one that does not contain bananas...
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News
Organic sarnie supplier aims to appeal to kids
A retail sandwich range aimed specifically at children is making its way into the chillers later this month in a bid to bring younger consumers to the category. Organic sandwich brand Fresh Naturally Organic is launching the sandwiches,...
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News
Omega-3 removed as Vitality is relaunched
Müller UK has signalled that the UK's obsession with brain boosting ingredient Omega-3 could be on the wane by removing it as an ingredient from its Vitality brand just three years after adding it. The company is relaunching its...
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Rankings
Sales Salary Survey 2008
Are you earning as much as you should? An what perks can you now expect?Not surprisingly, The Grocer’s Sales Salary Survey 2008 doesn’t always make for attractive reading. As a quick glance shows, basic salaries are up at below the rate of inflation for almost every position: from the best-paid ...
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News
Company Profile Strawtech
Company: Strawtech Established: 2006 Number of lines: 1 Listings: Sainsbury's, Asda, Spar Andrew Robinson's mantra is 'life's good when it sucks' - not because the 29-year-old is prone to wallowing in misery, but because he's the...
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News
The Challenge
Sipahh's entrance into the UK market is a modern day David and Goliath story. It was launched there early in 2007, but its Australian inventor Unistraw had been making waves there well before then, taking on the world's biggest food...
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News
THE ORGANIC DILEMMA
As far as good publicity for the organic industry goes, it doesn't get much better than a front page splash in a national paper saying 'Official: Organic really is better'. The claim was made on the back of EU-backed research suggesting...
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News
blinded by ambition
It's hard not to be impressed by the grocery retailers' high-profile efforts to reduce packaging waste in the next five years. But there's a problem with the plethora of bold strategies - they are all different. And it's making life increasingly...
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News
We'll stick with PLA says M&S
M&S won't stop using polylactic acid (PLA) in its packaging, despite Innocent axing it because it can't be recycled by most councils. Innocent will switch to PET bottles by January after it emerged PLA material could not be home...
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News
Less reliance on meat sends exports towards record high
The August outbreak of foot and mouth may not hit exports as hard as feared - because Britain has widened its exports to such a degree it is no longer as reliant on beef, according to Food from Britain. Exports in the first half of the...
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News
thinking outside the box
Dominic Lowe, Green & Black's new MD, is lying on a bed, surrounded by chocolate and being gawped at by members of the public - not because he fancies himself in the starring role of the brand's next round of commercials, but because we've...
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News
Is crime a problem for your store?
Staff safety is vital ?We are based in an area where there are a lot of schoolchildren but while we get the odd bit of shoplifting crime isn't too much of a problem for us. Our store is fully equipped to deal with any issues, though. We have...