Retail News
About
72% of consumers are using more coupons than they did six
months ago
due
to the
economy,
according to a study by Prospectiv. The vast majority (81%)
use coupons for grocery items. About 80% stated they would be
very likely or likely to increase their use of coupons if they
could be tailored to their interests and delivered online, and
87% of shoppers reported they would be more likely to shop at
a retailer that offered coupons, reported Brandweek. Full
Story
Following a similar move made by Ralphs earlier this
summer, Vons will only double coupons up to $1,
reported The Orange County Register. Full Story
Natural Harmony Foods, Inc.'s new breakfast lineup of
SoLean grab-n-go products will be available in all Kehe
Natural Foods warehouses. Full Story
Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc.'s current phase of its ‘Good
‘Til' program, which offers customers reduced pricing on over
1,000 products, will receive increased focus in its weekly
circular. ‘Good ‘Til Fall' runs through Oct. 8 and gives
shoppers the opportunity to take advantage of discounts
throughout the store when they use their Customer Reward Card.
Full Story
Manufacturer News
While
family farms continue to decline across the country, the
number of community-supported agriculture (C.S.A.) businesses
increased from 50 in 1990 to more than 2,000 in 2008,
according to www.localharvest.org, an internet guide to
organic and local food, reported The New York Times on the
Web. C.S.A.'s are so popular that many in Connecticut and
New Jersey have waiting lists.
Full Story (Free Registration
Required)
Meanwhile,
more
school districts nationwide are signing on to the burgeoning
"farm-to-school" movement. While that can be more
expensive and may involve more work, food directors claim it
pays dividends in fresher, better-tasting produce that more
kids eat. In past years, the biggest obstacle to the go-local
movement was the federal government, whose regulations
restricted schools from "geographic preferences" in procuring
food, reported The Wall Street Journal. Full Story (WSJ Subscription
Required)
As
demand for premium chocolate soars, new high-tech
confectioners are changing the industry with Silicon
Valley-style innovation, antique German equipment, and a focus
on the cocoa bean. For example, San Francisco, CA-based TCHO
is seeking to improve the quality of chocolate through
scientific experimentation with flavors and does not classify
bars by cacoa content or origin. The company currently sells
its chocolate only online in brown packets labeled "beta," and
solicits feedback and reaches out to customers through social
media outlets like YouTube, reported CNN. Full
Story
Procter & Gamble is launching the new Oral-B
Advantages Floss Pick next month, extending its floss line
and entering the floss pick market for the first time. The
product intends to increase the frequency its customers floss,
making the experience more enjoyable with an "easy-to-use
design", according to a company rep. The picks will arrive on
shelves in mid-September reported Brandweek. Full Story
Foods claiming to deliver energy are finding a distinct
place in the marketplace as consumers are looking beyond
energy drinks for an added boost, according to Mintel.
Mintel's Global New Products Database picked up a number of
‘energy' ingredients moving into foods, including ginseng,
guarana and taurine, which are already popular in energy
drinks and now appear in snacks, reported Market Watch.
Full Story
RedPrairie Corp. integrated radio-frequency
identification technology into its yard management system.
This initiative is based off a module of its Warehouse
Management Solution and provides customers with a new level of
visibility and control over yard operations and asset
management, according to Tom Kozenski, RedPrairie vice
president product strategy, reported Convenience Store
News. Full Story
Acosta Sales & Marketing Co. acquired Top Line Food
Sales & Marketing, a bakery sales and marketing
agency serving the New England and Eastern Great Lakes
markets. The Top Line acquisition allows Acosta to continue to
build its fresh foods platform and to strengthen its bakery
presence. Full Story
Latest sales & earnings for food related
companies (Updated Daily)
Foodservice News
In the coming months, Argo Tea plans to expand to the
East Coast with the opening of five new corporate stores.
Within the past five years, the tea café evolved into a chain
of 10 company-owned stores, all in the Chicago area. The cafés
serve up "teappuccinos," green tea ginger twists, yerba mate
lattes, and other proprietary blends. The menu features more
than 30 hot and chilled beverages, reported QSR
Magazine. Full Story
Denny's is introducing an all-night Rockstar
menu, featuring menu items created by popular bands such
as Taking Back Sunday. The 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. menu includes
Taking Back Bacon Burger Fries, Plain White Shake, Heart on a
Plate, and The All American S.O.S, reported QSR
Magazine. Full Story
New Store News: Noodles & Company will
open a restaurant in Florence, KY in mid-October, reported
The Cincinnati Enquirer. Full Story (Free Registration Required) ...
Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville will open in Uncasville,
CT, on Sept. 29. Full Story ... Houlihan's opened in
the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, reported
TwinCites.com. Full Story (Free Registration
Required)
Health News
Olive leaf extracts may help reduce cholesterol and
blood pressure levels, according to a study funded by
Frutarom. A daily 1000mg supplement of olive leaf extract
reduced cholesterol levels as well as systolic and diastolic
blood pressure over eight weeks, according to researchers,
reported Food Navigator Europe. Full Story
Milk can assist muscle recuperation after exercise,
helping to minimize exercise-induced muscle damage from
resistance weight training, according to a study published in
the Journal of Applied Physiology, Nutrition and
Metabolism. Certain proteins and carbohydrates in milk
were found to be responsible, and the drink also functions as
an effective rehydrator, reported Food Navigator USA.
Full Story
Washington News
USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service needs to
strengthen its controls over the reinspection of imported meat
and poultry items at U.S. ports and strengthen its
methodology for selecting foreign establishments for review,
according to a followup report by USDA's Office of the
Inspector General, Controls Over Imported Meat and Poultry
Products. Full Report
In a move that could lead to the use of International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by U.S. issuers beginning
in 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission will publish a
"Roadmap" for doing so, noting that more than 100
countries around the world, including all of Europe, currently
require or permit IFRS reporting. The proposed multi-year plan
sets out several milestones that, if achieved, could lead to
the use of IFRS by U.S. issuers in their filings with the
Commission. The SEC estimates at least 110 U.S. companies
would qualify based on their market capitalization, among
other factors. Full Release
Reversing a prior decision, the California Assembly
approved a bill that would limit the amount of a chemical
that was linked to cancer and is used in food packaging. The
measure would allow no more than 10 parts per billion of a
compound known as PFOA in fast-food wrappers, pizza boxes,
beverage containers, and other food packaging, reported The
Modesto Bee. Full Story (Free Registration Required)
Los Angeles County's hundreds of taco trucks will be
allowed to conduct business from set locations, a judge
determined, eliminating a law requiring that the trucks move
every hour, reported The Modesto Bee. Full Story (Free Registration Required)
USDA wants to remove the requirement that Chilean grape
producers eradicate mites with methyl bromide. Instead,
Chilean producers would follow a new system of registration
and inspections, reported The Fresno Bee. Full Story (Free Registration Required)
FDA was praised for issuing a final rule allowing fresh
lettuce and spinach to be irradiated in its ongoing
efforts to reduce foodborne illnesses in both The New York
Times on the Web Full Editorial (Free Registration Required)
and The Wall Street Journal. Full Editorial (WSJ
Subscription Required)
|
ECONOMIC DOWNTURN PRESENTS
OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES FOR
RETAILERS
The
future of food retailing for the next three to
five years will be dramatically affected by two
major trends: food inflation and the emergence of
small format stores, according to the annual
Future of Food Retailing webinar presented
by The Food Institute and Willard Bishop, which
examined the state of the food and consumables
retail industry in 2007 and beyond. Food price
inflation will exceed current "conventional
wisdom," and be a factor for three or more years,
predicted Willard Bishop during the webinar. In
fact, predictions about the rate of inflation have
generally been underestimated. However, this food
price inflation can benefit food retailers with
winning shopper value equations and solid plans to
take advantage. If you missed The
Future of Food Retailing webinar and would
like to purchase a recording, click
here. | |
Global News
Russia could cut poultry and pork import quotas by
hundreds of thousands of tons, according to Agriculture
Minister Alexei Gordeyev. Any substantial cuts would likely
make an impact on U.S. poultry producers, such as Sanderson
Farms Inc. and Pilgrim's Pride Corp., for whom Russia is the
biggest market, reported The Associated Press. Full Story
Scientists from
Newcastle University teamed up with
Tesco
to open the UK's first "pensioner-friendly" supermarket,
complete
with magnifying glasses and seats on trolleys, anti-slip
flooring, and extra-wide aisles. If given the go-ahead, the
store will be built in Newcastle, reported The Daily
Mail. Full
Story
The Waste Resources Action Programme asked the European
dairy industry to develop more cost effective labels and
adhesives for milk containers, as it seeks to meet EU
requirements on waste reduction. Current labels and adhesives
on high-density polyethylene milk bottles leak into the
plastic polymers, decreasing the total amount of the bottle
that can be recycled in packaging, reported Food Production
Daily. Full Story
The cause of the deadly listeria contamination at a
Maple Leaf Foods Toronto meat plant may never be known,
according to president Michael McCain. So far, 29 cases of
listeria are confirmed, including 15 deaths: 12 in Ontario and
one each in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Quebec,
reported The Globe and Mail. Full Story (Free Registration Required)
Deere & Company will invest approximately $80
million in its agricultural manufacturing and parts
distribution operations in Brazil to increase
manufacturing capacity for both tractors and combines as well
as to improve service to customers. Full
Story
Müller is launching a limited-edition black cherry and
dark chocolate Fruit Corner yogurt next month. The new
flavor, the first to incorporate chocolate, will be the first
in a series of limited-edition Corner lines planned for the UK
market, reported Just-Food.com. Full Story
Good Life China
Corporation signed a Letter of Intent to acquire an unnamed
Chinese-based agriculture company of similar size and
financial stature to the company's current operations.
Full
Story
Mengniu Diary will
use light-coated linerboard produced by China Sunshine Paper
Holdings Company Limited
for
certain products as the top layer of the container boxes. Full
Story
Market News
There are about 1.1 million hired workers in the U.S.
and half of those lack legal authorization to work in the
country, according to an updated profile of farmworkers. Most
are located in the Southwest, with California and Texas
accounting for almost one-third of the $22 billion spent in
2002 on hired farm labor, reported AZCentral.com. Full Story (Free Registration Required)
China's apple production should increase 15% for the
2008 season, according to an estimate provided by Joyce
Cui to the U.S. Apple Association's 2008 Apple Crop and
Marketing Conference. Ms. Cui claims China's 2007 crop was
down about 10% from normal on average. China's shortfall,
combined with a crop cut short by frost in Poland, sparked
higher prices for apple juice concentrate in the 2007-08
season, reported The Packer Online. Full Story (Subscription Required)
Caused by lower-than-usual temperatures in the spring, a
natural flowering phenomenon reduced the late summer supplies
of pineapples. Prices are up as much as 50% compared to
f.o.b.s a year ago, and they could go higher, reported The
Packer Online. Full Story (Subscription Required)
The 2008 Idaho potato harvest began, according to
Frank Muir, president of the Idaho Potato Commission. Shippers
went through the 2007 crop faster than anticipated, so there
is not much product in the marketplace. Added to that is the
fact that the crop, delayed by cool, wet weather in the early
spring, is running a little later than normal, reported The
Produce News. Full
Story
A small but rising number of newcomers are attempting to
grow hops on a commercial scale outside the Pacific
Northwest. The growers aim to capitalize on hop prices that
are as much as sixfold higher than a few years ago, as well as
the nation's boom in small-batch "craft" brewers, reported
The Wall Street Journal. Full Story (WSJ Subscription
Required)
Alcan Packaging Food Americas introduced sustainable,
high-barrier packaging solutions with Ceramis-PLA
biodegradable barrier films. Made from the annually renewable
resource corn starch, Ceramis polyactic acid (PLA) structures
are fully biodegradable and compostable to meet the market's
increasing demand for environmentally responsible packaging,
reported PackagingNetwork.com. Full Story
USDA invited some states to submit an Application
for Federal Assistance and to enter into a Cooperative
Agreement with the Agricultural Marketing Service for the
Allocation of Organic Certification Cost-Share Funds. The
states are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and
Wyoming. Full Notice
USDA proposed to amend the fruits and vegetables
regulations to allow the importation, under certain
conditions, of sweet oranges and grapefruit from Chile into
the continental U.S. Full Notice
FSIS will conform its regulations to the Agricultural
Marketing Service regulations, entitled, "Mandatory
Country of Origin Labeling of Beef, Pork, Lamb, Chicken, Goat
Meat, Perishable Agricultural Commodities, Peanuts, Pecans,
Ginseng, and Macademia Nuts." Full
Notice | 
IGA Coca-Cola Institute Perspective
