News and Trends

Source: Getty Images Clean label presents a ‘significant’ opportunity for foodservice outlets to accelerate business growth and returns, according to a recent report from supplier Ingredion. Titled ‘Put profitability on the menu’, the report explores key trends underpinning clean label growth, how foodservice businesses can tap into this and suggests new menu offerings. It also names bakery as the top global clean label category followed by dairy, cheese and carbonated soft drinks. Globally, 75% of foodservice outlets say clean label is an important part of their business strategy and businesses in the EMEA region would like three quarters of their food and beverage offering to be clean label within the next two years [Atlas Ingredion Foodservice Research 2019]. Food operators that already offer clean label menu items reported that it had a positive impact on their business, including being able to pass on price increases to customers and increase margins. Communicating this offering t...

Source: Crosstown Bakers are joining forces with food & drink brands to create new products. From savoury pastries to sweet doughnuts and indulgent chocolate cakes, new products are hitting the market. Here, we take a look at some of the latest collaborations:   Source: Bridor Bridor and The Laughing Cow French bakery manufacturer Bridor has partnered with global cheese producer The Laughing Cow to launch an indulgent Cheese Lattice. Designed to cater to both the snacking and lunch markets with an on-the-go format, the ready-to-bake savoury pastry is made with Bridor’s pure butter croissant dough and filled with The Laughing Cow cheese. The product branding has been designed specifically to improve shelf appeal, Bridor said. Packaged in The Laughing Cow brand colours to increase visibility, and in practical greaseproof paper, the new Cheese Lattice is suited to different moments of consumption throughout the day. “Snacking is becoming more widespread for consumers worldwide, so...

rpbi-news.co.uk, 25 March 2022 Luxury holiday park developer, Actually Group, is investing £4m to create a new luxury retreat in North Yorkshire. Keld Spring Lodge Retreat is located on a nine-acre site near the village of Wombleton in Ryedale. The development will feature 30 luxury lodges. Landscaping is well advanced on site, with the first lodges due to be in place by the end of May. Andy Sutton, CEO of Actually Group, said: “Keld Spring will offer innovative, luxurious living accommodation that offers the ideal recreational space inside and out, in a stunning location with so much to do and great places to visit nearby. “It lays down a new marker for high-quality, sustainable holiday lodges on a site that complements its scenic setting and showcases the quality of staycation destinations we’re creating in many of the UK’s most beautiful regions.” Rhodri Andrews, marketing director, added: “Keld Spring offers both a compelling lifestyle opportunity and a rewarding investment proposi...

Namnews, 24th March 2022 The government restrictions on the placement and promotion of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) food & drink products in stores due to come into force from October could be delayed to help ease the cost-of-living crisis. The industry has been warning that the implementation of the rules will cost millions as supermarkets and convenience stores are reconfigured to accommodate the changes. Retailers face not being able to put HFSS products at the store entrance, at the checkout, near a queuing area, or at the end of an aisle. Promotions such as multibuys will also be banned for HFSS products. This loss of key sale drivers could potentially cost some manufacturers millions in lost revenue and make food more expensive for consumers. Several leading manufacturers have already launched HFSS-compliant versions of their key brands, whilst supermarkets such as Tesco have been testing new store layouts that comply with the placement rules. According to The Telegraph, t...

Namnews, 25th March 2022 Asda has launched a new type of grocery delivery service where customers can communicate directly with a ‘personal shopper’ whilst in store and get their weekly shop brought to them in as little as an hour. Shoppers in Leeds and Bristol will be able to access Asda’s full online range of products via on-demand delivery platform, buymie. This differs from some other third-party delivery services that only offer a limited range. buymie’s network of personal shoppers will pick, pack and deliver each order, giving the customer the ability to submit any preferences and discuss their requests – including the type of substitutes they would accept. There is no limit on the number of items that can be ordered with delivery fees ranging from £3.49 to £4.99. The three-month trial will be available in selected postcodes within a three-mile radius of 10 Asda stores in the Leeds and Bristol area. Further rollout is planned if successful. Simon Gregg, Senior VP of E-commerce a...

Namnews, 23rd March 2022 It has been revealed that Iceland’s new ‘Swift’ convenience stores are being supplied with products by Nisa, including Co-op own-label lines. A year on from launching a pilot outlet in Newcastle, Iceland opened its second Swift store in London  last week . The stores are described as offering a convenience store layout, with an enhanced range of chilled food and ambient grocery, and a condensed frozen range. According to trade magazine The Grocer, Iceland had secured a supply agreement with Bestway and its Costcutter division for the format, but the deal is currently being serviced by Co-op-owned Nisa. This includes supplying Swift with the ambient and chilled food lines, including branded products and Co-op own label. The Co-op lines include ready meals, pizzas, and food-to-go. The report stated that the Nisa-sourced lines are supplementing Iceland’s own predominantly frozen range to ensure Swift can offer a full convenience range. A spokesperson for Icela...

Namnews, 22nd March 2022 Asda is launching a major price repositioning that will involve the rollout of a new budget range and further SKU simplification. According to trade magazine The Grocer, the new own-label offering will be called ‘Just Essentials by Asda’. It will cover around 300 products including items such as beans, bread, crisps, and biscuits as well as non-food lines such as washing-up liquid and laundry powder. Asda said the move was aimed at appealing to price-sensitive customers facing a cost-of-living crisis as inflation soars, although it stressed that it would also emphasise the quality of the new range. Analysts have suggested that Asda has lost some of its price competitiveness under the ownership of the Issa brothers and TDR Capital. The business recently faced criticism from anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe for raising the price of essentials and the lack of coverage of its existing Smart Price and Farm Stores value ranges. However, The Grocer noted that the s...

STR, 14 March 2022 LONDON—London’s hotel industry reported month-over-month performance improvement, according to preliminary February 2022 data from  STR . Occupancy: 58.8% Average daily rate (ADR): GBP130.79 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): GBP76.88 The occupancy level was the highest in the market since November 2021 but still 25% below the pre-pandemic comparable from 2019. ADR, on the other hand, was just 1.6% lower than February 2019. Daily data shows that London’s performance improved especially on weekends, with 26 February producing the highest performance levels for the month: occupancy (80.8%), ADR (GBP162.33), and RevPAR (GBP131.18).

Source: Tesco Tesco is claiming a UK first with the opening of a hot cross bun café in east London. The pop-up café, located in Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch, will be open for one week only from 5 April. According to the retailer, the venue offers a range of ‘hot cross bun-filled dining experiences to suit all tastes’, including brunch, afternoon tea and five-course dining from £5 per head. All the café’s proceeds will go to the supermarket’s charity partner, the Trussell Trust, with the aim of helping it to provide emergency food and support to people in crisis this Easter. Every dish or cocktail served at the café will feature Tesco products ‘with an innovative twist on the hot cross bun’, the retailer said. These include vegan Hot Cross Bangers and Smash at brunch, Hot Cross Scones at afternoon tea, and Hot Cross Bun Espresso Martinis and Hot Cross Bun Steak Tartare at dinner, with gluten-free options available at every session. Source: Tesco The opening of the café comes after...

Namnews, 21st March 2022 Asda has opened its largest ‘On the Move’ convenience store on an EG Group petrol forecourt in Nottinghamshire. Situated on EG’s London Road site in Retford, the 5,000 sq. ft. Asda store offers more than 2,500 own-label and branded items, including its Extra Special range and fresh and chilled products, alongside EG-operated foodservice brands LEON and KFC. Following trials in four other Asda On the Move stores, the site offers access to the grocer’s full online range via a Click & Collect service, as well as collection and returns on parcels from over 100 other brands. The new opening takes the number of Asda On the Move stores to 32. Towards the end of last year, Asda announced that it planned to open over 200 convenience stores at petrol stations operated by its new owners, the Issa brothers and TDR Capital. The group noted that the latest launch provides further evidence of the shared benefits and combined strengths of the partnership between Asda and t...

Namnews, 21st March 2022 Bidders for Boots are set to meet with the retailer’s management this week as the takeover race intensifies despite the volatile market conditions. According to The Sunday Times, US private equity firms Apollo and Sycamore Partners are among the firms to have submitted non-binding bids for Boots thought to be worth around £7bn. They are competing against the Issa brothers and TDR Capital, who want to add the health & beauty chain to their retail empire, which includes Asda and the EG Group. Three weeks ago , a consortium comprising of Bain Capital and CVC Capital Partners pulled out of the race due to the price expectations of the retailer’s owner, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA). They had been regarded as frontrunners because of the involvement of Dominic Murphy, a CVC partner who has been a key figure in Boots’ ownership over the last 15 years. Yesterday’s report by The Sunday Times quoted a source close to WBA that said “four or five” interested parties r...

  Wholesalers have battled the challenges of Covid and Brexit with aplomb. But they now find themselves in the eye of another storm with rampant inflation… and patchy availability Let’s start with the positives: the doomsday scenario that the pandemic would kill off scores of wholesale businesses has not materialised. It is a testament to the resilience of the sector that despite a Federation of Wholesale Distributors survey in May 2020 finding over half of British  wholesalers  feared they would not last the year without significant government help, none of its members have since collapsed. That is particularly impressive considering much of the hard-won support funding from government to wholesalers in England is only just beginning to come through now. That is not to say everything in the wholesale garden is rosy – far from it. While those serving the convenience grocery sector have enjoyed strong sales in the past two years, as our Big 30 ranking shows, the sector mad...