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Ocado show strong growth

The –on-line grocery retailer Ocado has posted a 30% increase in sales during the four weeks before Christmas despite the difficulties associated with the bad weather. Annual sales are now running at more than £500 mn as consumers continue to switch to on-line purchase of grocery. The results mirror strong trading from Waitrose but also reflect a number of earlier initiatives such as matching Tesco prices on more than 5000 branded lines. (04/01/10)

Walmart targeting cost cuts

Walmart, owner of ASDA, has announced a plan to cut supply costs by centralizing global purchasing. It has established four global centres for general goods including one in the UK for the George brand. In fruits and vegetables, it aims to develop the ASDA model of using procurement offices in key countries such as South Africa, New Zealand, Brazil and Chile. (04/10/10)

Kraft to raise bid for Cadbury

Kraft has until Jan 19 to raise its offer for Cadbury. Kraft are waiting for a trading update from Cadbury, due on Jan 15, before deciding whether to raise its offer. Cadbury claim that revenue and profit growth are set to meet new targets. Hershey and Ferrero have both indicated that were considering making an offer for Cadbury but no bids have yet been made. (04/10/10)

Renewed calls for lower red meat consumption

Enviornment Secretary Hilary Been is expected to renew calls for a reduction in red meat consumption with the launch of the new Food2030 policy document to be released later this week. Other measures are expected to include ending supermarkets’ bogof deals and the use of ‘best before’ dates (04/01/10)

Champagne loses its fizz

Poor sales of Moët & Chandon, Dom Perignon, Krug and Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne led to a near-20pc fall in alcohol sales at LVMH over the first nine months of 2009. Destocking by distributors was blamed for the fall and an improvement in the third quarter was reported. (20/10/09)

The Co-op makes strong progress
Half-year sales and profits were well up at the Co-operative Group following its acquisition of Somerfield earlier this year. Pre-tax profits grew 17% to £228.8m on group sales of £6.4 bn, up 27.1% for the six months to 25 July. The food division recorded like-for-like sales growth of 7.3% for the period (12/10/09)

More woe for organics

The number of organic lines stocked by Tesco and Asda have been reduced by at least 30%. The move comes in response to falling sales across organic. Year-on-year sales in the multiples have fallen 14%, according to the latest Nielsen data. Processed products, such as ready meals, babyfood and snacks, have been particularly hard hit as retailers concentrated on stocking a smaller number of core lines. (10/10/09)

Cranswick benefits from switch to pork
Despite record prices for pigs, pork specialist Cranswick has announced a 15% rise in profits for the six months to October. Like for like sales of pork rose by 12% as consumers switched from beef and lamb to pork. Cranswick’s overall sales for the six months rose by 19% following the acquisition of pork farmer Bowes of Norfolk earlier this year. (8/10/09)

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