IT

New research to be published next week is expected to confirm smart phones are revolutionising the way consumers shop

Smartphones to revolutionise supermarket shopping

By Rick Pendrous

Smartphones are revolutionising the way consumers shop and both retailers and their food and drink suppliers need to recognise this if they are to take advantage of it, new research being released today (Monday October 7) is expected to reveal.

Nestlé has teamed up with Google to launch Android-branded KitKat bars to promote the internet giant's new mobile operating system

Nestlé unveils Android KitKat Google partnership

By Mike Stones

Nestlé is to make more than 50M Android-branded KitKat bars, after teaming up with Google to launch the new version of its Android mobile operating system to be called Android KitKat.

Firms can post work placements

New tool helps young find work placements

By Rick Pendrous

Young people will be provided with help in finding work placements and experience within the food industry when an online facility called FoodStart is launched next May by the Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST).

Good signs: Asda plans to feature the best social media posts about its Chosen by You own-label on food packages

Asda steps up social media, as festival runs workshop

By Mike Stones

Asda is stepping up its social media programme by attaching real social media comments to its Chosen By You own-label food range, while – in an unrelated move – Scottish food businesses have been invited to a free social media workshop at a local festival.

Tesco is now 'more in doing mode', said Shore Capital

Tesco recovers from horsemeat ‘body blow’: City

By Mike Stones

Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco has recovered from “the body blow” inflicted by the horsemeat crisis, while all the big four UK supermarkets were struggling to maintain their presence in “anaemic markets”, said city analyst Shore Capital.

The horsemeat crisis led to the FSA's proposed action plan, which also aims to tackle wider issues

FSA tightens net on food fraudsters

By Rod Addy

The Food Standards Agency’s (FSA’s) food safety director Steve Wearne has fleshed out the FSA’s proposed action plan to deal with supply chain crises such as the horsemeat scandal.

The software is said to offer more visibility for more effective decisions

Partnership promises energy savings

By Rick Pendrous

Energy management specialist Schneider Electric has launched a partnership programme with other technology providers under the title EcoStruxure. The aim is to enable open data communications between buildings and process equipment across enterprises...

The new food safety training plan will change the way 'tens of thousands of food manufacturing staff are trained' claims the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health

Food safety course to ‘change how thousands learn’

By Mike Stones

A new food safety training package from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) will change how “tens of thousands of food manufacturing staff are trained”, claims the organisation.

QR codes are efficient at compressing large amounts of data

Cracking codes

By Paul Gander

Far from 'quick response', some have dubbed QR codes 'quite rubbish'. But will the joke turn out to be on those manufacturers that choose to ignore them? Paul Gander scans the evidence and reports on his findings

Morrisons expects deliveries to customers to start by January 2014 after its deal with Ocado

Morrisons strikes online grocery deal with Ocado

By Mike Stones

Supermarket Morrisons has agreed a partnership with the online distribution business Ocado – including the acquisition of its distribution centre – in a deal that will see deliveries to customers start by January 2014.

To register for the free one-hour webinar on lessons learnt from the horsemeat crisis, see the end of this article

Horsemeat crisis: have your say

By Michael Stones

Have you got a burning question about the horsemeat crisis that you want answered? Then, ask our expert panel of speakers during Food Manufacture Group’s free one-hour webinar to be staged at 11am GMT on Thursday May 16.

Colour vision systems can confirm a match between product flavour or colour and packaging

Visionary thinking

By Paul Gander

The list of positive reasons for choosing vision-based product inspection is lengthening. Paul Gander looks at recent and future developments

Applied Systems software is used to check Hovis bread

DNA testing may become part of all food quality control

By Laurence Gibbons

Retailers will demand more stringent quality control and traceability procedures  ̶  including regular DNA testing  ̶  from their suppliers within the next few years as a result of the recent horsemeat scandal, according to the boss of one traceability...

Online sales, which form part of the so-called ‘omni-channel’, are starving IT resource

Soaring online sales divert IT from data work

By Rick Pendrous

Britain’s multiple retailers are devoting so much IT resource to fulfilling soaring demand for online grocery sales that work on developing the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN) with their suppliers has suffered, it has emerged.

Forecast data can be fed back into scheduling

Let's click together

By Rick Pendrous

Software systems can transform production and get all links of the supply chain working together from the same dataset. Rick Pendrous reports

Twitter users were out in force at the Oscars of the food and drink manufacturing industry

Food and drink manufacturing Oscars – the top tweets

By Mike Stones

Twitter fans were active before, after and during the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards (FMEA) at the Park Lane Hilton in London this week. Here, we capture a flavour of the Oscars of the food and drink manufacturing industry in tweets, which used...

Electronic shopfloor data collection is an integral part of computer-based traceability

Going online

By Laurence Gibbons

Laurence Gibbons hears the arguments in favour of replacing paper-based systems with online ones

Staff will learn how to manage their supply chain more effectively

Morrisons sends staff to university

By Lorraine Mullaney

Morrisons has launched a foundation degree in supermarket operations, which it will be running with the Logistics Institute at Hull University Business School.

Check this out: online food and grocery sales are set to reach £11bn in five years

Food firms miss out on 'millions' of pounds of online grocery sales

By Laurence Gibbons

Food manufacturers are missing out on sales worth millions of pounds by using the internet only to promote their brands and not for direct sales, according to speakers at the grocery think-tank IGD’s Trading in a Digital World conference.

Companies need to pay more attention to IT budgeting

Firms are wasting cash on complex IT

By Rick Pendrous

Half of UK businesses are wasting thousands of pounds on IT support when they could be spending less by streamlining their systems for business advantage, according to a enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems specialist.

Moving to the Google Apps for Business platform will allow Premier to focus on its power brands

Premier Foods to adopt new Google Apps IT system

By Mike Stones

Food giant Premier Foods is swapping its traditional on-premise IT system for a cloud-based collaboration suite Google Apps for Business to be implemented in the fourth quarter of this year.

Top quality ingredients and social media have fueled the firm's growth, says founder Phil Kiernan

New pie manufacturing facility to create 20+ jobs

By Lorraine Mullaney

Gloucestershire homemade pie manufacturer Mad About Pies plans to set up a second manufacturing facility in the Forest of Dean, which will create at least 20 new jobs.

Internet sales have given overall sales a big push, according to Sainsbury

Sainsbury claims fastest web food retailer growth

By Mike Stones

The UK’s third largest supermarket Sainsbury claims to be the country’s fastest growing online food retailer in a statement published with its financial results for the year to March 17.

Welcome to his world: Social media allows Jones to connect with his consumers

How food manufacturers make Facebook and Twitter pay

By Mike Stones

Social media-savvy food manufacturers use Facebook and Twitter to forge links with customers that boosts sales in ways that large firms cannot, claims Wilfred Emmanuel Jones, founder of the Black Farmer brand.

Touch and go ... to a career in food and drink manufacturing is the aim of a new digital campaign aimed at youngsters. To book your free place at our Skills Seminar, contact Hannah Rosevear on 01293 610431 or email Hannah.Rosevear@wrbm.com

UK does the business on the web

By Mike Stones

The internet contributes 8.3% of the UK economy – a bigger contribution than in any other developed nation, according to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group.

Supermarkets will increasingly cater for smart consumers using smart technology

Supermarkets switch onto smart phone technology

By Rick Pendrous

Smart phones will be central to the way tomorrow’s young, 'Generation Y' shoppers interact with food and drink products on sale in supermarkets, according to new research commissioned from the grocery think tank IGD by Coca-Cola Enterprises...

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