News and Trends

As the Co-op continues to roll-out its new on the go concept, with a second site opened earlier this month in Farringdon, we speak to head of format development Ian McCutcheon about the format’s inspiration and future plans. The group’s first store with this concept opened on  Baker Street in London, following a £2.1m investment . The concept focused heavily on food to go and included two Ever Ground coffee machines as well as an extensive pastry and bakery offering. McCutcheon explains the move towards food to go with this concept but that it isn’t limited to just that. “The aim is to communicate our food to go offer more clearly and in an impactful manner amongst the food retailer competitor set, we also want to present our customers with a product, range, layout and service that provides fast and efficient service. “These type of stores will consist of a food on the go/fresh-centric offer but with a credible food for later offer across grocery and chilled.” He adds that the stor...

Drawing on insights from the company’s Taste Tomorrow platform – which monitors advanced digital technologies and semantic artificial intelligence techniques, online surveys in 44 countries and conversations with foodies across the globe – the ingredients specialist has revealed the key trends that will help stakeholders navigate the ‘new’ consumer landscape. “Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has had significant consequences on our industry, but it’s not the only factor that’s shaping conversations and behaviours,” ​ said Nanno Palte, group marketing intelligence manager at Puratos. “Coronavirus becoming a thing of the past, as it will do, doesn’t mean the trends we’re sharing this week will also be consigned quickly to history.” ​ The trends that are impacting the way the bakery sector operates: Hyper-personal tailoring Consumers’ pursuit towards healthier eating will continue into the foreseeable future. According to Puratos, ‘ power ingredients ’ – those that not only impact health, but...

The Ritz in London is planning a major redevelopment to compete with other luxury hotels across the capital. The plans, first reported by the  Evening Standard , are estimated to cost £300m and will take over three and a half years to complete.  Documents show the Grade II-listed hotel, founded in 1906 by César Ritz, is seeking to construct a five-storey basement extension that will include a two-storey pool, gym and spa. It will also feature underground parking for 10 cars to accommodate VIP guests, which the hotel said includes the Royal Family and international heads of state. An additional 53 bedrooms will be built, 10% of which will be wheelchair accessible.  The hotel currently has 138 rooms and features the Michelin-starred Ritz Restaurant, the Rivoli Bar, Ritz Club and cigar shop. An application made on behalf of the Ritz argues that despite major refurbishments taking place in the 1970s and 1980s, the hotel has not been upgraded for decades and has fallen behind ...

Some 10,000 Co-op SKUs are now available on Amazon. But will the venture pay dividends, with Morrisons offering cheaper alternatives? Co-op  and  Amazon  are hardly obvious bedfellows. One is a local community-minded network of UK stores, owned by millions of members and underpinned by an avowed ethical approach to trading. The other is a global online behemoth whose practices on everything from tax to worker conditions are regularly called into question. Yet both have high hopes for their online grocery partnership,  announced last week . About 10,000 Co-op SKUs are now available to buy on Amazon, giving Prime members the ability to order a basket of goods to arrive the same day, in two-hour scheduled slots. Although only available in Glasgow and the surrounding area for now, Co-op has a nationwide ambition for the service. “Our commercial strategy is focused on getting closer to where they are to provide what they need, however and wherever they choose to shop with...

  ermarkets: how age and gender impacts shopper preferences By  Ellis Hawthorne | 8 June 2021 | 4 min read Save article Shoppers love to play favourites. Anything from the shape of the car park to the number of checkouts can come into play when choosing which store to visit for the weekly shop. But are there key trends across age groups and gender when it comes to which retailer is their pick of the bunch? We commissioned a survey of over 1,000 British shoppers to find out more.   UK shoppers' preferred supermarket by gender Shoppers in the UK were asked to rank their top three preferred supermarkets, this shows the percentage who chose the retailer as number one by gender Males Females Asda 12% Sainsburys 15% Tesco 25% Morrisons 10% Aldi 11% Lidl 11% Iceland 3% Waitrose 5% M&S 3% Co-op 5% Source: Harris Interactive for The Grocer  •   Get the data  •   Created with  Datawrapper  f  in Turns out, men and women can agree on somet...