The Office of Fair Trading wants wholesalers to delay a move to compare wholesalers’ cost prices with those obtained by the big four – until and if there is a market review.

Dhamecha Cash and Carry is maintaining growth after reporting turnover of £271m for the year to March, compared with £258m the previous year.

Bestway Cash & Carry has received approval from the Office of Fair Trading for its acquisition of Batleys Cash & Carry.

Palmer & Harvey McLane last week made a presentation to Scottish Mace retailers in Aberdeen after its deal to acquire Mace in Scotland.

The Council of Members of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors gave a dinner at the Savoy Hotel, London, in May for Alan Toft, to mark his retirement after 16 years as director general.

Members of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors were euphoric at the massive media coverage achieved by National Independents’ Day (NID) on June l.

Wholesaler members of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors and MSYS professionals were at the printing plant of the Daily Mirror on Thursday May 26 to toast a special historic issue.

Following the massive media overage of National Independents’ Day, the My Shop Is Your Shop campaign is recruiting a team of independent retailers to deliver new research to the Prime Minister.

Londis retailer Alan Fincham was one of thousands of independent retailers marking National Independents’ Day.

Cadbury Trebor Bassett is linking with Booker for an exclusive promotion celebrating the centenary of Cadbury Dairy Milk, which will offer customers and staff the chance to win prizes.

Palmer & Harvey McLane has launched its annual Christmas brochure, a document designed to help independent retailers prepare for the 2005 festive season. The presell runs for six weeks until July 1.

3663 has been awarded a £17m contract to supply one of the UK’s leading hotel and leisure groups, De Vere Hotels and Leisure.

SWEET SIX APPEAL

Key Lekkerland’s Scottish wholesaler JW Filshill officially opened its 100th KeyStore in Scotland to coincide with National Independents’ Day.

Nisa-Today’s has reported a surge in members sales on its ‘New Seasons’ range of fresh cut flowers and plants – 40,000 New Seasons flowers and 18,000 New Seasons bedding plants were sold in a three-week period.

3663 Catering Equipment has teamed up with mymarket.com, an online ordering and information system for the hospitality industry, to enable the website to offer caterers a wide range of equipment.

If you read the profile of any company, it will contain familiar words and phrases. I can almost guarantee that quality, customer service and innovation will appear in the text, whatever the industry.

Brakes has won a contract worth £20m to be the sole supplier of frozen, chilled, grocery foods and fresh produce across the Bourne Leisure group.

Both wholesale divisions of Scottland’s CJ Lang & Son are offering free wine lists to customers purchasing from the exclusive Vintners Collection range which was launched by Landmark in May last year.

The Nestlé Rowntree Manager of the Month for June is Sarbjit Singh, branch manager of Bestway Leicester. Sarbjit has been an employee of Bestway for the past 24 years, having worked his way up from checkout operator – his first role at Bestway Acton in 1981 – to his current role as branch manager at the Leicester depot, which he took on in 1999.

Foodservice wholesalers, cash and carry operators, suppliers and catering operators are ringing October 3 and 4 in their diaries – the dates fixed for Catersummit 05.

The cost of picking up unwarranted parking tickets in central London is accelerating to alarming proportions.

Last month, as part of its effort to support wholesalers’ independent retailer customers, FWD joined the Retail Academy as an associate member. This on-line organisation was formed to provide training and knowledge support to the retail sector.

Musgrave Budgens Londis has appointed former Safeway board member Mark Aylwin as supply chain director.

Julian Twaites has taken over from Andrea Hargrave as wine controller at Booker Cash & Carry.

Key Lekkerland wholesaler AC Ward & Son has strengthened its management team with the appointment of Paul Brendish to the post of chief operating officer.

Job title: wholesale trading controller

Dhamecha Cash & Carry experienced a massive sales boost as the Today’s Group Brandwagon began its tour of the Group’s top 20 members by visiting all five of Dhamecha’s depots on consecutive days.

Spar retailers in the West Country who fail to provide a basic food-to-go offer are letting down every store in the UK and worldwide, a store owner has claimed.

Parfetts Cash & Carry was named the Best Cash & Carry at the CTP Awards 2005.

COUPONS. The doubting Thomas syndrome was working in over-drive when the Federation of Wholesale Distributors was presented with the idea of a generic tabloid money-off coupon promotion that would create footfall in local independent stores. But reality has kicked in – and the coupons with big savings on very supportive big brands appeared in the Daily Record (Scotland) and Daily Mirror on May 27. Fantastic!

The issue of price is much discussed and is certainly of grave concern to those operating in the independent sector. However, the latest Cash & Carry survey by him! has thrown up some interesting facts in that only 28% of customers questioned who had purchased items from the beer, confectionery, petfood/petcare, cigarettes and bread categories noticed a promotion taking place “at this C&C today”.

Nisa-Today’s has enhanced its supply chain infrastructure with the take-up of UDEX Product Data (PDQ) services, in a move it says will significantly reduce costs for its members and suppliers.’

Food and drink wholesaler Morris & Son (Leeds) is investing in an 18-user Accord Distribution system from supply chain solutions specialist Business Computer Projects (BCP).

Key Lekkerland member AC Ward & Son is carrying out an £850,000 investment in its fleet, replacing older trucks with new 18-tonne vehicles.

Anumber of cash and carry and delivered wholesalers will be operating without drinks licences once the new Licensing Act 2003 comes into force later this year. By adhering totally to the guidance given within the Act and with the agreement of their local council (the licensing authority) they will be saved the tiresome and costly process of securing a premises licence and personal licences.

PRAG is not short for pragmatic but it could be. The committee that drives MSYS consists of wholesaler and supplier representatives with a genuine ambition to push at the boundaries of what is possible in a co-ordinated structure of this kind.

While growth in the overall breakfast cereal market is barely more than static, it is still a hugely important category with 95% of UK households buying the products, and a range of influences means there have been substantial winners and losers among sub categories. Issues such as the Government’s focus on salt and sugar content and the latest GI (glycemic index) dieting fad, have caused big changes in consumers’ buying habits.

In convenience stores, pet owners are very important customers because they spend 30% more per week than non-pet owners. The statistic comes from him! and the reasoning behind it is that if you have a pet then you’re usually in a bigger household with a bigger family and therefore are spending more.

Like many independent retailers, Ranjid Johal did not have the time or resources to look at what stock he had to offer in his off-licence section or how best to merchandise it. As a result he was in desperate need of organising across all areas from beers and cider to wines, spirits and alcoholic ready to drinks. However, Take Home Blueprint regional specialist Joe Mitchell was on hand to do this for him at his 2,200sq ft Nisa Supermarket at High Green in Sheffield.

Scisset Supermarket in Wakefield has had proven success using the Blueprint guides for several years, but in preparation for the expected hot UK summer, owners Harry and Kully Kaur enlisted the help of Blueprint scheme director Ross Shelley to update their off-licence offering.

Walkers Snacks is building its Sensations brand with the launch of Sensations Olive Oil Crisps, a new range of indulgent crisps seasoned with Mediterranean flavours: Lightly Salted; Sun Ripened Tomato and Basil; and Mozzarella and Oregano

Diageo is aiming to invigorate the ready-to-drink (RTD) category with the launch of Archers Vea backed by a £4m launch spend.

Coca-Cola is offering an on-pack promotion to win 5,000 ringtones or music downloads every day. The promotion will appear on 275 million packs of Coca-Cola and Diet Coke until the end of July with a total of 300,000 free Coke music products being given away during the two-month promotional period.

Unilever Ice Cream & Frozen Food is driving awareness of its Captain Birds Eye Fish Fingers in celebration of the product’s 50th anniversary this month. A new on-pack promotion, Wish Fingers, will form part of a £5m spend on the Captain Birds Eye brand this year.

Walkers and Pepsi have joined together for the first time with an on-pack promotion with five million ‘50p off’ vouchers for Pepsi Max or Pepsi Max Twist 500ml inserted in packs of Walkers Crisps.

Britvic Soft Drinks is investing £3.5m in its Wimbledon campaign for Robinsons this summer with a range of activity including sponsorship of Tim Henman, on-pack promotions, poster advertising and sampling at Wimbledon.

Procter & Gamble is launching a £2m on-pack promotional link-up between its household and laundry care brands Fairy laundry detergent, Febreze fabric freshener, Lenor fabric conditioner and Bounty Fat Rolls kitchen towels, and Madagascar, the new computer-animated comedy.

Nestlé Rowntree has introduced a new Smarties variant, Smarties Big Flavas, giant fruit flavoured chocolate Smarties with an RRP of 35p for 40g.

Interbrew UK is reviving an historic beer brand with the launch of Artois Bock, a 6.2% ABV speciality beer which was last brewed in the 1950s.

Marlow Foods is investing £3m with the aim of repositioning Quorn as a mainstream healthy eating brand.

Kraft has unveiled plans for Christmas which include a £2m TV advertising campaign for its Terry’s Chocolate Orange, and smaller case sizes on other products to make them more attractive to independents.

As part of the £22m investment in Pepsi for 2005, Britvic Soft Drinks is launching Diet Pepsi with a new formulation designed to enhance appeal to health conscious consumers. The new formulation will be supported by PR and sampling to more than one million target consumers.

Interbrew UK is continuing to drive the sales success of Castlemaine XXXX with a new TV advertising campaign, comprising new 40 and 30 second adverts.

Doritos is introducing a core range exclusively for the impulse channel.