It is good news for the baking industry that it will have one show, with the sole aim of promoting bakery machinery, ingredients and baked goods (pg 4). The agreement between BEL, the board which ran Food & Bake exhibition, and Wm Reed Exhibitions, which will launch The Baking Industry Exhibition at the NEC in April 2008, means a show that will carry the whole industry and also have theatre, live demonstrations and widespread promotion through many media.

So I would urge companies taking part, or just thinking about it, to save new launches or new developments for the show. Why? Because the one question on everyone’s lips from buyers to the media is always: "What’s new?" Of course, you will have exclusive clients whom you may want to tell first. But you will attract a much wider number of new customers if you keep something important back for the show. It’s not every day that someone invents a stress-free divider, launches a new loaf into Marks & Spencer, called a ciabatta, or creates a confection named after a vegetable that becomes a best-selling carrot cake! But these have all become talking points and at least two of them were launched at shows. So if you can come up with a potential best-seller, keep it under wraps, but do develop it in time for April 2008.

As always in this fast-moving industry, much has happened this week. Carr’s Milling predicts a significant deterioration in flour margins because of resistance to the price increase - an increase that has been fully explained in this magazine and elsewhere and is fully justified.

And if you are a craft baker, could I urge you, without delay, to sign up for Doughnut Week, sponsored by BakeMark. You can phone craft baker Christopher Freeman or register online but please do not miss this opportunity of raising your profile in your local community, raising your profits and, at the same time, raising money for the Children’s Trust (pg 4).

Elsewhere this week, fats expert, the highly knowledgeable Gordon Kirkwood, MD of Vandemoortele, delves into the technicalities of trans fatty acids - and their substitutes (pg 16). And we also delve into the background of Allied Bake- ries’ biggest-ever relaunch of its Kingsmill brand (pg 14).

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