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Ocado ceo Tim Steiner: Increasing numbers of food firms are entering the online grocery arena

Online sales help brands counter own label threat

By Ben Bouckley

Limited supermarket shelf space and own label competition are reasons why food firms are growing online sales, both directly and through third-party sites, says food and grocery analyst IGD.

IT meltdown: Brakes ceo Stefan Barden wants to

Major IT meltdown puts the skids on Brakes

By Anne Bruce

Foodservice giant Brakes has apologised to customers following a massive IT breakdown last week, which meant staff in warehouses could not pick food and send out orders.

Unifine UK md acclaims Dawn Foods takeover

Unifine UK md acclaims Dawn Foods takeover

By Ben Bouckley

Unifine Food & Bake Ingredients UK md Simon Solway has greeted the news that US firm Dawn Foods wishes to acquire his firm as a “very positive move”.

Former Kellogg's UK md Greg Peterson: pastures new

Kellogg's UK md steps down

By Ben Bouckley

Kellogg's UK md Greg Paterson has stepped down, with the food manufacturer appointing a temporary successor until it finds a suitable long-term replacement.

Wales is a winner on waste

Wales is a winner on waste

Environment minister for Wales, Jane Davidson opened consultation on the ‘Food Manufacture, Service and Retail Sector plan’ for waste last month. She did so during a visit to Wales’s first commercial-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Premier Foods’s...

Stand-off

Stand-off

By Rod Addy

Geneva has a rich history. The earliest stages of St Peter's Cathedral there date back to 1160. A famous hotbed for Protestant revolutionary zeal in the 16th18th Century and home to church reformer Calvin, the European headquarters of the UN is also...

Full force of the law

Full force of the law

By Lynda Searby

January marked the end of the two-year transition period for flavouring regulation EC 1334/2008, which means firms are expected to have completed any changes necessary to comply with the new law.

Making food family fun

Making food family fun

By Mark Rigby

As an industry we spend a great deal of time and money developing ‘healthy’ food solutions and menus for schools and support the ‘food’ education of children in school. However, once a child leaves the school gate there is very little support and, in...

Santa Maria gears up for boom in Mexican food

Santa Maria gears up for boom in Mexican food

By Freddie Dawson

Mexican is becoming a favourite ethnic cuisine in the UK, according to Sweden-based manufacturing group, Santa Maria, which is gearing up to cash in on the trend.

Management buyout of Northumbrian Fine Foods

Management buyout of Northumbrian Fine Foods

By Ben Bouckley

Managers at Northumbrian Fine Foods have bought the company off private equity owners and plan to invest in the business in a bid to push turnover above £12m in 2011.

Unilever says Colman’s investment may cut jobs

Unilever says Colman’s investment may cut jobs

By Ben Bouckley

Unilever says it is spending around £2.6m to upgrade production and expand production at its historic Colman’s mustard factory in Norwich, but admits that it could shed up to 20 jobs as a result.

No can do? Keynote is gloomy about the future of canned foods

The decline and fall of canned foods?

By Graham Holter

Some parts of the canned foods industry are doomed, according to a new report from analysts at research firm Key Note, which predicts that total UK volume sales will continue to fall, despite a predicted rise in sales value.

Ranjit Boparan: Rasing the Northern stakes

Game, set, match Boparan?

By Ben Bouckley

Ranjit Boparan is one step closer to taking over Northern Foods after announcing yesterday that he now controls over 70% of the convenience food group’s shares, although one analyst said the industrial logic of a tie-up with Greencore would have been...

Bee venom honey maker stung by FSA ruling

Bee venom honey maker stung by FSA ruling

By Ben Bouckley

A producer of honey with added bee venom has described the Food Standards Agency (FSA’s) rejection of UK - and by extension EU - licensing for his product under the novel foods regulation as “hard to rationalise”.

Boparan: Sitting pretty in bid for Northern

Greencore calls time on Northern romance

By Ben Bouckley

Greencore said this morning that it does not intend to make a revised offer for Northern Foods to rival Ranjit Boparan’s 73p/share offer, which means the Midlands businessman is one step closer to tying the knot with Northern shareholders by March 16th.

Robert Schofield

Own-label woe puts Premier jobs at risk

By Ben Bouckley, Graham Holter and Anne Bruce

Premier Foods plans to close its distribution centre in Chandler’s Ford, Hampshire as it rationalises its south coast operations, while the firm has also rebuffed rumours of a management change.

Crisp competition drives Kettle expansion

Crisp competition drives Kettle expansion

By Anne Bruce

Kettle Chips will shortly begin work on a £6.8m investment in extra production facilities at its Norwich base, in a move that could create up to 35 new jobs.

Ranjit Boparan: holds pole position for Northern but Greencore still in race

Race for Northern Foods could go to wire

By Ben Bouckley

The battle between food titans Greencore and Ranjit Boparan to take over Northern Foods could still go right to the wire, despite the expiry today of a deadline set by the latter for Northern's shareholders to formally accept his bid.

Use of late customisation is rising

Use of late customisation is rising

By Rick Pendrous

The concept of late customisation looks to be expanding out of the confines of research departments and into mainstream manufacturing operations. It’s a way of cost-effectively making a variety of products that use a common ingredient by adding flavour...

Goldenfry Foods wins trade secrets case

Goldenfry Foods wins trade secrets case

By Ben Bouckley

Goldenfry Foods has a won a legal judgement against three former employees who misused trade secrets to establish a breakaway company and appropriate a £5m supermarket contract for gravy granules.

Sugar beet crop

English weather subdues ABF trading

By Ben Bouckley

Associated British Foods (ABF) has issued what stockbroker Shore Capital describes as a “rather subdued” trading update, following a disastrous UK beet sugar harvest

Hügli Group doubles UK production capacity

Hügli Group doubles UK production capacity

By Graham Holter and Ben Bouckley

Dry blended foods producer the Hügli Group has invested around £2m to double the size of its UK production facility and process more savoury products such as soups and sauces.

Ranjit Boparan: Could his 11.4% stake in Northern Foods prove decisive?

Pressure on Greencore to up stakes in Northern bid

By Ben Bouckley

Greencore is under pressure to table a viable counter-bid by March 2 to beat Ranjit Boparan in the struggle to takeover Northern Foods, but still has advantages on its side if it does do so, says one City analyst.

No EC demand that Twinings repay €12m Polish grant

No EC demand that Twinings repay €12m Polish grant

By Ben Bouckley

The European Commission (EC) has questioned the role played by the Polish authorities in Twinings’ application for a controversial €12m grant to build a factory that will see almost 400 UK jobs axed, but has not asked that the money be repaid.

Heinz Kitt Green pay dispute resolved

Heinz Kitt Green pay dispute resolved

By Ben Bouckley

Workers at the Heinz baked bean facility in Kitt Green have accepted a revised pay deal from the company and called off plans for further industrial action.

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