All News articles – Page 796
-
News
Struggling Inter Link hopes to ’wrap up a sale soon’
Troubled cake company Inter Link Foods is showing potential buyers around its premises, including Irish food company McCambridge, "at least one other trade buyer" and financial buyers, chairman Jeremy Hamer said this week.McCambridge, which already owns Queen of Hearts, Hussey’s Bakery and West of England Bakeries, was furthest advanced in ...
-
News
Packaging watch
Leading names in the baking industry are the latest to sign up to the government-backed Courtauld Commitment, which is an action plan designed to reduce the amount of wasted packaging.WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has announced that the new signatories include Duchy Originals and Premier Foods.They have pledged to ...
-
News
Real value
Two of my biggest French influences have run themselves into mountainsides in helicopters," laments 37-year-old Alastair Gourlay of The Real Patisserie, signalling the treacherous trappings of top-flight bakery. Gourlay is of course talking about Lionel Poilâne of renowned bakery Poilâne and Delice de France’s Philippe Signolet. "I was shocked both ...
-
News
viewpoint
Wheat prices are very volatile at the moment and the impact on this industry should not be underestimated (pg 4). A few months ago bread prices going over the £1 mark made headlines in many of the national newspapers. Last week I wrote about a range of Sainsbury’s in-store speciality ...
-
News
Folic Acid: the public view With mandatory folic acid fortification in bread or flour hitting the media headlines, Hayley Brown went out on the street to gauge consumer reaction
Ami PatelI’ve never even heard of folic acid. Therefore, I wouldn’t think twice about taking a supplement and had no idea that there were plans to put it into bread or flour.I knew that calcium is put into bread and that helps people’s health, so maybe adding folic acid ...
-
News
Andrew Pollard, chairman, British Society of Baking
Half way though the year and Federation of Bakers production figures show decreases of up to 6% year-on-year. This is despite Allied Bakeries’ major re-launch and TV advertising activity from Warburtons and British Bakeries.Consumers appear to have reduced their purchases of bread at Christmas as normal, but sales have not ...
-
News
On the hunt for Xmas card artists
California Raisins has teamed up with the Bakers’ Benevolent Society to search for a budding artist in the baking industry to create the society’s charity Christmas card.It is looking for two of the best designs, which stand to win a first prize of £1,000 and second prize of £500. The ...
-
News
Is mine a CRAFTY BUSINESS? What constitutes ’a craftsman’ in the baking industry, asks Tony Phillips, who ends up deciding that he might just be one himself
The words ’The Craft’ is used so often in our trade that, as a simple businessman, I will confess I do not really know what it means.Does it simply mean that those who make their product by hand are craftsmen? If so, why are BAKO and other suppliers selling so ...
-
News
Bakers in price war crossfire
Plant bakers have been hit as supermarkets Asda, Tesco and Morrisons lock into a new price war.Asda announced last week that it was lowering 10,000 prices worth £250m in a staggered programme. And Tesco followed by saying it was to slash £270m off prices this week. Then Morrisons this week ...
-
News
Walkers looks to boost R&D with bakery closure
Walkers Shortbread is closing its fresh goods bakery in a bid to develop more creative new products.The bakery in Aberlour, Scotland, will be turned into a test and development unit instead of trying to compete with supermarkets’ bread and fresh bakery produce. Walkers will now concentrate on shortbread and oatcakes.MD ...
-
News
Superhero Bob flies in to lead battle for ’half and half’ sales
British Bakeries this week said it wanted to build its Hovis brand’s leadership of the ’half and half’ bread sector, as a new £2m marketing and advertising campaign gets under way.A superhero called Bob, representing Hovis’ Best of Both brand, is visiting supermarkets around the country as part of a ...
-
News
French breads boost Taste the difference
Sainsbury’s unveiled a range of six ’artisan’ breads this week under its Taste the difference label.Nick Townend, bakery category manager, told British Baker the launch coincided with customer demand for increasingly luxurious bakery items.The breads, which are made by Le Pain Croustillant, are initially going into 102 Sainsbury’s in-store bakeries.The ...
-
News
Briefs
n Paul Wilkinson, former executive chairman of RHM Foods, has been appointed a non-executive director of Fengrain, a grain co-operative in the Eastern Counties.n Irwin’s Nutty Krust batch bread has been nominated Northern Ireland’s best-loved product, beating local brands such as Tayto to rank number one in a vote by ...
-
News
Northern Foods reveals Christmas pudding plans
Northern Foods said in its annual report for the year to 31 March that it would test market the "definitive Christmas Pudding" this year.The pudding will draw on nearly 120 years of experience and original Victorian recipes. A successful test will result in a full launch in 2008.Northern Foods owns ...
-
News
Expanding comfortably
Staying small has much to recommend it: better control, fewer headaches and the ability to sleep at night. But for those with stamina and ambition, expansion can bring with it a bigger income, status and perhaps the realisation of dreams.As Sandy Birnie, chairman of bakery giant Lyndale Foods says, some ...
-
News
Commodities tracker
There is no clear picture as yet on the volume of sultanas and the size of the developing crop.What is certain is there are national elections in Turkey in July and agriculture makes up a huge proportion of Turkish industry. Therefore, the government will further pledge its support to the ...
-
News
Costa: strong start to year
Whitbread saw like-for-like sales at its Costa coffee shop chain increase by 4.7% in the 13 weeks to 31 May, compared to the same period last year. Total sales grew by 18.4%.Alan Parker, Whitbread’s chief executive, said: "Costa has benefiting from its rapid expansion programme and continued like-for-like sales growth. ...
-
News
FSA fills in details of folate decision
Dame Deirdre Hutton, chair of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), urged fellow board members to agree that folic acid fortification would be better suited to all white and brown wheat flour at its board meeting last week.The FSA proposes that folic acid be added to flour to help prevent ...
-
News
Doughnut Week funds roll in
Birds of Derby has helped raise £2,800 for the Children’s Trust charity by selling hundreds of doughnuts throughout National Doughnut Week, 5-12 May.So far £16,471 has been counted by organisers, but money is still coming in from craft bakers around the UK. The grand total is expected to exceed £35,000.This ...