uk product launches

Snack Products

Ennis Foods

Ennis Foods has relaunched its branded ‘Rumblers Snack in a Pack’, a pre-prepared cereal in a bowl, as a breakfast or between meal option. The product comes in several different varieties and retails at £1.19p. Varieties include:

Granola and Raspberry with Bio Yogurt
Granola and Banana with Bio Yogurt
Cornflakes with Semi Skimmed Milk
Honey Nut Cornflakes with Semi Skimmed Milk

Heinz

Heinz is launching a range of snack meals aimed at teenagers under its Big Eat label. Available in 350g pots and retailing at £1.39 varieties include:

Spicy Chicken Tortellini
Creamy Cheese Pasta
Chunky Vegetable and Tomato Hotpot
Chicken and Vegetable Curry

Hancocks

Hancocks has added to its range of confectionery with a line of Halal sweets. Available in 1kg and 3kg bags the range will include:

Fruit Salad
Wine Gums
Cola Bottles

Cadbury

Cadbury is launching a new Dairy Milk Double Choc bar, a chocolate bar with a liquid centre. Retailing at £0.43p for a 47g bar, there will also be a 250g bar retailing at £1.72.

Pringles

Pringles is extending its Gourmet range with two new additions. Retailing at £1.38 for a 120g can, the new varieties are:

Wild Mushroom, Roasted Garlic and Parsley
Crumbly Mature Cheese with Spring Onion

Heinz

Heinz has relaunched its Mean Beanz range and added two new flavours. Retailing at £0.49p per can the new variants are:

Smokey BBQ
Italian

Haribo

Haribo has extended its product range with Haribo Lite for health conscious consumers. With no artificial flavours, 30% fewer calories, 40% less sugar and less than 0.1% fat per 100g, the 140g bags will retail at £0.99p.

Heinz

Heinz is launching three new products to its range of tinned pastas. Aimed at children the products, which are multigrain and contain Omega-3, come in varieties of:

Fifi and the Flowertots
Pirates of the Caribbean
Shrek

Laughing Cow

The Laughing Cow brand, owned by Bel UK, has added an Essential Omega-3 variant to its range. Trialled in Tesco stores it is now available nationally at £0.99p for a 140g pack.

Kingsmill

Allied Bakeries brand Kingsmill is relaunching its products with new product formulation, packaging, clearer distinction between loaves and a bigger loaf.
The new line up will consist of:

Great Everyday
Head Start
50/50
Crusts Away
Good as Gold
Toastie

Soups and Sauces

Branston

Branston is relaunching its relishes range and adding a new flavour, Sweet Chilli and Ginger. Now in clear plastic, squeezy, top-down bottles the range retails at £1.49.

Heinz

Heinz is launching three new variants of its Tomato Ketchup brand, Tomato Ketchup with a Twist. Available in 320g squeezy bottles the product will retail at £0.99p. Variants are:

Tomato and Chilli
Tomato and Garlic
Tomato and Sweet Onion

company news

UK: J Sainsbury

Private equity bidders have been given until 13th April to declare firm intentions for offers on multiple retailer J Sainsbury.

UK: AB Foods (Associated British)

AB Foods has announced that its operating profits for the first half of the year were “in line with expectations” despite a drop in grocery profits and increases in commodity prices. The company’s performance is largely due to the its presence in sugar and fashion retail.

UK: J Sainsbury

J Sainsbury has predicted that there will be a 45% sales increase on its fair-trade lines to £130m. The retailer claims to have the highest amount of fair-trade sales over all other multiple retailers in the UK and is also expecting an increase to £200m by 2008.

UK: Glisten

Glisten, snack and confectionery food group, has reported an increase in pre-tax profit of 27% to £2.6m and sales increase of 8% to £29.7m. These figures have been helped by sales increases of 11% at subsidiaries Halo Foods, Lyme Regis Fine Foods and its Skegness gum and jellies plant.

UK: Waitrose

Waitrose announced a 5% rise in profits to £244m on sales rising 11% to £3.7bn. Parent company the John Lewis Partnership has reported pre-tax profits up 27% to £319m on a sales increase of 11% to £6.4bn.

UK: Greggs

Greggs has released information that its profits have hit a 19.8% fall in full year pre-tax profit to £40.2m on a sales increase of 3.3% at £551m. The fall has been blamed on the costs of rising energy and a company restructure.

UK: Morrisons

Morrisons has appointed a new Trading Director to be responsible for all aspects of trading and supply chain operations. Martyn Jones, who joined Morrisons in 1990, has taken the role after assuming the duties in Dec 2006.

UK: Waitrose

Waitrose has been voted the UK’s favourite retailer according to the Customer Satisfaction Index published by Verdict Research. 6,000 subjects were asked to rate shops on range, convenience, quality, price, service, ambience, facilities and layout.

UK: Tesco

Tesco is responding to allegations that it has raised the price of fruit and vegetables before offering them at a reduced price as part of a health promotion.

legislation & technology

UK: Traffic Light Labelling

The FSA has launched a new advertising campaign to raise awareness for its Traffic Light Labelling System. There has been an issue between the body and the food industry over how to label foods for consumer health benefit. The FSA accepts that GDA guidelines are helpful but believe they can be used in conjunction with traffic labels for full consumer benefit.

A survey carried out by the website Netmums.com has revealed 80% of the 17,000 parents who answered prefer the traffic light scheme on foods.

UK: Organic Food Airfreight Times

The Standards Board of the Soil Association is considering an outright ban on transporting organic food by air. The document petitioning this, which contains a range of options, will be put before the Soil Association within 12 months.

UK: Food Safety Scheme

The Minister for Sustainable Farming & Food has launched a new scheme with the aim of helping local food producers and manufacturers supply local retailers. The Safe and Local Supplier Approval (SALSA) scheme is the first UK-wide plan of this kind.

UK: Ofcom

Ofcom has delivered its final statement on advertising food and drink products. From 1st April adverts involving products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) will be banned from programmes aimed at pre-school children to 16 year olds. The scheme will be fully implemented by December 2008.

UK: Food & Drink Federation

The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has responded to the Ofcom ban on advertising products high in fat, salt and sugar to under 16’s as they believe the nutrient profiling model to distinguish these products to be scientifically flawed.

UK: FSA

In attempt to lower obesity and improve the health of the nation the FSA is asking manufacturers to provide smaller portions and reduced fat options. The aim is to help people live healthier life styles and consume less fat. The FSA is planning to draw health campaigners, the Government and industry into discussions.

UK: Bird Flu Outbreak

After the recent avian flu outbreak the UK Government is defending its decision to continue importing turkey from Hungary. The Environment Secretary David Milliband stated that banning Hungarian imports would have contravened EU free trade rules. The NFU has stated that if a link can be found then action should be taken.

UK: Genetic Modification

74 UK businesses are meeting MPs in the House of Commons to protest at environmental legislation allowing up to 0.9% genetically modified ingredients in organic foods without informing consumers. The campaign highlighting their protest includes manufacturers such as Rachels Dairies, Yeo Valley and W Jordans Cereals.

UK: IFST

The Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) has changed its food stance for the first time since June 2001. In relation to salt it has stated that some manufacturers have lowered salt content and the FSA and FDF have acted positively with regards to trans-fatty acids. It has also stated that the industry is heading in the right direction but it would support more research.

UK: Salt Reduction

Salman Amin, President of PepsiCo UK and Chairman of an FDF steering group has stated that the UK food industry is “leading the way” in salt reduction. Mr Amin is helping in the launch of the latest phase of the FSA’s Salt Awareness campaign.

UK: Infant Formula

The promotion of infant milk supplement formulas will change shortly as the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services has changed its 1997 guidelines. The product can no longer claim to help build a child’s immune system or that additives such as long-chain polyunsaturated fatty-acids are important for development.