All articles by Steve Parfett – Page 4
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Comment & OpinionQuality versus quantity in the newspaper market
I am fed up with newspaper stories purporting to be news that are in fact based on spurious surveys by PR companies…
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Comment & OpinionWanted: rigorous legislation to deal with duty fraud
Despite a huge effort, the industry has not managed to solve, or make significant inroads into, duty fraud…
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Comment & OpinionThe shop floor can be a springboard
The recent GCSE and A-level results set me thinking about career prospects in grocery and wholesale…
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Comment & OpinionBargain Booze and Waitrose - what ownership lessons?
Bargain Booze’s plans to float on the AIM set me thinking about business structures in our trade…
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Comment & OpinionWholesaler-supplier relationships are good for business
The values of relationships are regarded differently in the multiple and independent sectors…
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Comment & Opinion
Conservatives' tobacco smoke signals are not encouraging
Stupidly, I had begun to think that nothing politicians did would amaze me any longer…
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Comment & Opinion
The Easter egg shortage inquisition
Surely ‘the great Easter egg shortage’ was the classic case of reap what you sow for manufacturers and multiple grocers…
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Comment & Opinion
Steve Parfett hails wholesale security success story
Criminal activity increases during difficult economic times and this has been borne out by our experience since 2008…
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Comment & Opinion
Duty fraud: we need legislation to help stamp it out
With the Budget days away, I will illustrate the imbalance in importance of anti-duty fraud measures proposed by HMRC…
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Comment & Opinion
How indies' Christmas offer was shot down
Ever since I came into the trade 35 years ago, the independent sector has been losing trade in seasonal confectionery…
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Comment & Opinion
Indies must show more heart
In the week of the annual ACS Heart of the Community conference…
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Comment & Opinion
Trading Standards and police are going too far with diktats
Recent weeks have seen increasing evidence of authorities making decisions by decree that should be legislated for….
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Comment & Opinion
Tobacco margins: who's fooling who?
Cigarettes and tobacco have always been an essential element of a convenience offering, often accounting for 40% or more of sales…
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Comment & Opinion
We need consistent underage penalties, please
A story in the Caernarfon & Denbigh Herald at the beginning of last month set me thinking about consistency…
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Comment & Opinion
Duty should depend on units
Minimum pricing on alcohol now looks like a done deal, and I suspect we must make the best of it and…
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Comment & Opinion
What consultation, Asda?
On Saturday last I joined the group Marple in Action in a visit to a consultation exercise at the local…
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Comment & Opinion
There's more to life than Booker
For many years, and under different regimes, independent wholesalers traded against a market leader…
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Comment & Opinion
An outstanding achievement
As part of my role as Landmark chairman, I had the privilege a few weeks ago of visiting the new…
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Comment & Opinion
Is the end of impulse nigh?
For many years wholesalers and independent retailers have been told the saviour of independent retailing was going to be impulse purchases.