News and Trends

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  The deal, for an undisclosed sum, includes Dawn’s manufacturing plant in The Netherlands. Europastry bread Spanish bakery supplier  Europastry  has acquired US-based baker  Dawn Foods  ’ frozen bakery manufacturing business in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, includes Dawn Foods’ manufacturing plant in the Dutch town of Steenbergen and an R&D facility in the UK town of Evesham. Dawn Foods said it wants to concentrate on bakery ingredients in the areas covered by the disposal. The company’s CEO, Carrie Jones-Barber, said: “Dawn and Europastry have been partners for many years, providing great American bakery products to customers across Europe and AMEAP [Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific]. “As we continue to focus on our long-term strategic goals, Dawn’s focus in the Europe and AMEAP region is on driving growth in bakery ingredients.” Dawn Foods confirmed it will also continue to manufacture and distribute bakery ingre

 rpbi-openings.co.uk,  11 December 2022 Whitbread and Dominvs Group are working on a JV for a mixed-use 1,014-bed purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) development at One Medlock Street in Manchester. The scheme, located on the Deansgate Premier Inn site, close to the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University campuses, will see the development of two new buildings providing PBSA space spanning around 37 floors, as well as a 13-plus-floor commercial office building. Plans for the office building, which will adjoin the PBSA site, include around 387,500 sq ft of office space and will provide external amenity spaces on each floor. Once completed, the scheme aims to provide space for 2,200 office jobs. Timescales and funding details have not been disclosed. Jay Ahluwalia, principal director at Dominvs Group, said: “We’ve worked in partnership with Whitbread to create a mixed-use scheme that will provide an attractive, sustainable and well-connected hub for work, s

rpbi-openings.co.uk, 07 December 2022 Restaurateur Sam Harrison has signed up to be a leading part of a new housing development in Brentford. The Brentford Project is going to be a large scale waterfront development with over 800 homes along with retail outlets and restaurants. Harrison will open Sam's Waterside, a restaurant with a bar and outside terrace overlooking the river Brent.  Sam's Larder, a cafe and deli will also open just opposite the restaurant. Currently scheduled for a summer 2023 opening.

https://www.rpbi-openings.co.uk,  08 December 2022 Coffee#1 has announced the launch of Click and Collect across its store estate for the first time. The launch follows the recent successful roll out of delivery from Coffee#1 coffee houses with delivery partner Just Eat and means that as well as enjoying the welcoming atmosphere of the Coffee#1 coffee houses, customers needing a coffee on the go can now also order ahead and collect at their convenience. The launch comes as Coffee#1 has opened a brand-new coffee house in the centre of Bristol as the business accelerates its opening program. The store on the corner of Union Street and Broadmead is the 7th new opening since the pandemic, creating 12 new jobs in the area. The store is split across two floors, and can accommodate up to 119 customers. Founded in 2001 and now operating across Wales the Southwest, the South Coast and parts of the Midlands, the Central Bristol store is the 107th Coffee#1 store, making it the fourth largest coff

 Namnews,  12th December 2022 Latest figures from Kantar show take-home grocery sales in Ireland increased by 4.6% in the 12 weeks to 27 November. The period saw shoppers spend an additional €132m as grocery price inflation hit 14.7%, the highest level seen since Kantar started tracking inflation figures, and bigger than the increase recorded in the UK  last month . In November, grocery sales increased by 4.5%, driven by an 11.5% increase in average prices and shoppers returning to store more often. Online sales also increased by 3.5% in the last month, with shoppers spending an additional €1.7m year-on-year. A rise in the number of new shoppers continues to drive performance, with nearly 13% of Irish households purchasing their groceries online during the month. Kantar noted that a combination of rising inflation and festive spending means that December is set to be a record-breaking month, with grocery sales hitting €1.25bn for the first time. The data shows that the average cost of

  Namnews, 9th December 2022 Having prospered during the last couple of years, latest figures from Costco suggest the warehouse club retailer is starting to feel the effects of surging inflation and weakening consumer confidence. During its first quarter to 20 November 2022, Costco’s net sales still increased a healthy 8.1% to $53.44bn. However, this missed analysts’ estimates of $54.64bn and growth of 15.2% in the previous quarter. Excluding the impacts of changes in petrol prices and foreign exchange, comparable sales in its 583 outlets in the US rose 6.5%. The 107 stores in Canada saw a 8.3% rise, whilst its 157 overseas warehouses (including 29 in the UK) saw sales increase by 9.1%. Meanwhile, Costco’s merchandise costs rose 8.7% to $47.77bn as it grappled with higher freight and labour costs. However, pre-tax profits still grew, up 4.4% to $1.77bn. Other leading US retailers such as Target and Dollar recently said that stubbornly high inflation was impacting consumer spending and

 Namnews,  5th December 2022 Tesco’s Chief Executive has highlighted that many of its customers are switching from fresh food to frozen goods in an attempt to reduce their grocery bills. In an interview with the BBC, Ken Murphy said some shoppers were also swapping pricier red meat for cheaper white protein to save money. He added that people were using its handheld barcode scanners more when shopping to avoid being “embarrassed” at the tills. Murphy told the BBC that shoppers were “managing their budgets much more tightly” and had changed their behaviour by “trading down” to cheaper food and own label products. Other examples he listed included seeking out cheaper frozen meat and vegetables instead of fresh produce, batch-cooking meals and cutting back on eating out. The Tesco boss said its hand-held barcode scanners allowed people to “keep to a specific budget” by being able to keep an eye on the running total, instead of being “worried about being embarrassed at the till” if it turn

Half of consumers call healthy eating a top priority; one-third say sustainable eating is too. But to satisfy consumers’ commitment to eating more healthily, food producers and retailers need to get innovative. Well before COVID-19 hit ,   consumers of diverse demographic stripes had been experimenting with conscious eating to achieve a range of health and sustainability goals that have become as important to them as traditional food goals like losing weight. But the pandemic accelerated the trend, spurring consumers to eat fresher, healthier food. Does the trend remain alive and well? How widespread is it? Are food companies and retailers meeting the needs of these consumers? Key survey insights 50% of consumers prioritize healthy eating; 33% prioritize sustainability. Healthy eating means, first and foremost, consuming more fresh produce and less processed food and sugar. The pandemic spurred more than half of consumers 18 and older to make major changes in their eating habits. Fl

  December 1, 2022 For many consumers, eating plant-based alternatives to meat has more to do with personal health than the environment, find senior partner   Jessica Moulton  and colleagues. According to a recent survey, eaters across the United States, France, and the United Kingdom cite health, taste, and other factors as primary reasons for consuming plant-based products. In Germany, however, animal welfare and the environment rank highly as reasons to go plant-based. Source:  https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/coronavirus-leading-through-the-crisis/charting-the-path-to-the-next-normal/why-consumers-are-vegging-out https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/hungry-and-confused-the-winding-road-to-conscious-eating

Source: Getty Images Artisanal French baguette baking has joined the ranks of knowledge and skills protected by the Unesco convention of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The convention promotes the safeguarding of traditional craftsmanship and cultural practices shared from generation to generation, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events. Following a successful application by French authorities, the ‘artisanal know-how and culture of baguette bread’ joins food practices recognised by the convention including the ‘the art of Neapolitan pizzaiuolo’, ‘truffle hunting and extraction in Italy’, ‘Kimchi-making in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’; and ‘Ceebu Jën, a culinary art of Senegal’. The baguette is the most popular kind of bread consumed in France, and can trace its artisanal origins back to long loaves baked in the seventeenth century. Its traditional production process comprises a series of stages: measuring/weighing and mixing

 Namnews,  30th November 2022 Co-op is bringing its autonomous grocery delivery robots to the streets of Leeds in Yorkshire. The service will be available to 20,000 residents initially within the Adel and Tinshill area of the city, with groceries picked in local Co-op stores on Spen Lane (Tinshill) and Otley Road (Adel). Orders are made through the Starship food delivery app, with customers able to choose from a range of grocery items, schedule their delivery, then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent. Customers can order their delivery to arrive in under an hour and watch the Starship robot travel in real-time via an interactive map. Customers receive an alert when the robot arrives, and can meet and unlock it through the app. The expansion in the North of England for the first time follows the Co-op’s introduction of autonomous deliveries in Milton Keynes, Bedford, Northampton, Cambourne, and most recently Cambridge. Since the robots were first introduced into the UK,

 Namnews,  30th November 2022 Waitrose is trialling dedicated Gail’s fixtures in the bakery departments of three stores. The supermarket already sells a limited selection of some of the bakery chain’s bread in several stores across the UK. According to trade publication The Grocer, Waitrose shops in Berkhamsted, Bloomsbury and Richmond now contain a dedicated Gail’s bay to “further elevate” the offering. The report stated that the fixtures could potentially roll out to other Waitrose stores if successful. The retailer’s Commercial Director Charlotte di Cello told The Grocer: “We’ve been very choiceful about who we want to partner and work with to make sure we’re offering the best proposition we possibly can to customers.”