All British Baker articles in August 2007 – Page 2
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News
Chinese beet deal for ABF
International food, ingredients and retail group Associated British Foods (ABF) has announced a deal with the China-based Hebei Tian Lu Sugar Group in a move to boost sugar beet yields.The formation of the joint venture, to be called Bo Tian, is awaiting the approval of the Chinese government expected at ...
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Grocery sales slow to 3%
Growth in consumer spending in the grocery market is slowing, according to figures compiled by TNS Worldpanel.Market growth dipped to 3% in the 12 weeks ending 12 August, down from the three-year peak of 6% for the period ending 20 May. The downturn, says TNS, reflects renewed concentration on price ...
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Pricing policies prove tough
A recent survey of company directors in the food supply chain conducted by Grant Thornton, leading business and financial adviser to the food industry sought to probe the relationship between supermarkets and their suppliers and the extent of supermarket power.It found that eight out of 10 (83%) UK food suppliers ...
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Personal touch
Setting up your own bakery seems a perverse choice for someone whose memories of birthdays growing up are scarred by upset tummies from eating birthday cakes. It was only in adulthood that Emma Killilea discovered she had been suffering from an acute wheat allergy and she is now on a ...
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Health watch
A recent online survey in Germany, commissioned by National Starch, found that consumers were 20% more likely to buy bakery products if they had added health claims. These included "helps to control blood sugar levels", "increases dietary fibre intake", "promotes a healthy digestive system" and "delivers prebiotic properties".A total ...
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Irish miller warns of hefty increase in its flour prices
Irish miller Odlums has indicated that its flour prices will increase by over E90 (£61) a tonne.Odlums said it would aim to keep prices to a minimum, but added that the cost of raw mate- rials had surged.The company said that, with the global harvest season well under way, it ...
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Polish first for Scotland
An entrepreneur has built Scotland’s first large-scale Polish bakery to supply East European migrants and his own restaurant outlets.Bar and restaurant owner Jon Clemence set up the Polish Baking Company with Peter Ford, formerly of the Ford’s bakery chain in Edinburgh, and Sebastian Galewski, a former chef.The Leith bakery will ...
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Weather hits logistics firm
Logistics company Christian Salvesen said its UK logistics business had been hit by wet weather in July, in an update this week.This business, which processes and stores frozen vegetables for customers, suffered wet weather, severely affecting crops that are harvested during the summer, it said. However, overall trade was broadly ...
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Maple Leaf empire expands with purchase of La Fornaia
Maple Leaf Bakery UK added to its growing UK empire with the £18.75 million acquisition of premium breads supplier La Fornaia this week, announcing plans to expand the London-based business.Maple Leaf managing director Peter Maycock welcomed the deal: "La Fornaia is a great business that we have admired for some ...
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Dessert firm tackles market problems
Leicester-based desserts company Vittles is planning to double the size of its business in the next three to four years.The £2.5 million turnover business currently employs 50 people and makes between 1,000 and 2,000 dessert cakes a day.Director Julie Zalesny told British Baker that Vittles, which delivers frozen goods to ...
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Improve seeks NVQ and corporate training links
Improve, the food and drink sector skills council, wants to see employers’ own training programmes recognised as part of a new framework governing vocational qualifications across the industry.It is currently negotiating with employers and training provi-ders on ways to update in-house schemes to make them the basis for National Vocational ...
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Cooks takes a different tack
Retail bakery chain Cooks the Bakery has revealed it currently has 100 outlets, down from 121 at the start of the year.The company, formerly Three Cooks, had 158 shops when it went into administration in November 2006. Chairman Geoff Peppiatt bought 121 of the shops from administrators, renaming the business ...
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Commission to scrutinise emails
The Competition Commission has sent out legal notices to Asda and Tesco demanding access to e-mails sent to suppliers over the summer, to cast light on their relationships with suppliers.Reports in The Sunday Telegraph said the Comission wanted to see all e-mails over a five-week period around June, to investigate ...
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Fine Lady fined on pollution charges
Fine Lady Bakeries has been ordered to pay £8,000 after plea-ding guilty to polluting the River Cherwell in Banbury with diesel and waste bakery washings.On 8 August, Bicester Magistrates’ Court fined the plant baker £3,000 and ordered it to pay over £5,000 in costs, in a case brought by ...
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Briefs
n Brennans Bakery in Ireland has teamed up with Irish tour operator Sunway for an online promotion. An offer on the wrappings of Brennans’ half-pan packs directs consumers to a website, [http://www.sunway.ie/brennans]. They can book holidays with a E100 discount, and have a chance of winning a four-star holiday.n Earls ...
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Don’t disparage ’cheap’ bread
The baking industry has been criticised for trying to make bread cheap. On these pages, organic campaigner Andrew Whitley dismissed as "myth" that low price is compatible with quality. Elsewhere, Craig Sams, founder of Green & Blacks organic chocolate, has said that "the price we pay [for cheap bread] is ...
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Rondo steps up for bakers
Normally, when I get an invitation to "come and see the latest additions to our new make-up line", the sender is a beauty firm - the likes of Estée Lauder or L’Oréal.But in bakery ’make-up’ is somewhat different. And this time, the sender was the well-known Mike Johnson of Rondo, ...
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Bakery supplier bounces back
North-east bakery supplier Tindale & Stanton says it is back to full strength, expanding its new product development facilities and looking at new lines, two years after a fire destroyed its factory.The fire meant that the company lost 25% of its business overnight. "We had to adapt to survive," ...
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Martyn Ainsley, MD, Ainsleys of Leeds
I was dismayed to read in recent copies of The Telegraph (7 August) and Yorkshire Post contentious plans from the Communities and Local Government Committee to allow councils to levy a supplementary rate of tax of up to 10%.It is completely unacceptable that government should seek to pass on costs ...