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August 17, 2011 |
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IFDA NewsIFDA President’s Column: Is Government Picking the Winners and Losers? It Seems So in the Case of Organized Labor. The National Labor Relations Board and the U.S. Department of Labor have both released proposed rules that, in concert, will limit free speech by employers, deny employees from getting both sides of the story about union representation, and create legal pitfalls for business owners facing union organizing drives. Having failed at card check legislation, the Obama Administration is now using regulators and other government agencies to assert its will. In his latest column, IFDA’s President Mark Allen discusses what this could mean to IFDA members. Full Story Operator NewsSome 18 Dallas-area Burger King locations are going on the auction block, reported Dallas Business Journal. Full Story (Free Registration Required) Retail News7-Eleven Inc. entered into an agreement to acquire 51 Exxon Mobil Corp. retail locations in North Texas. Under terms of the pending deal, the stations will continue to sell Exxon gasoline, which will have signage on the station canopies, but 7-Eleven will own and operate the accompanying retail stores, reported The Dallas Morning News. Full Story (Free Registration Required) Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.'s Circle K Stores Inc. is buying 33 On the Run stores in Southern Louisiana from ExxonMobil. The deal is expected to close in December, reported Montreal Gazette. Full Story Personalization is a multi-dimensional experience rather than a discrete, singular component of shopping, according to Personalized Grocery Shopping, An In-Depth Shopper Interview, a report released by Brick Meets Click. The report examines how shoppers are using and thinking about grocery shopping technology from the viewpoint of a Safeway shopper, who frequents the chain every 1.5 to two weeks and purchases for a family of three. Full Report Retailers divide the year into 13 to 20 shopping sub-seasons designed to get shoppers into stores and increase impulse purchasing using seasonal displays. Consumers are usually willing to spend more during special seasons, retailers and manufacturers claim, especially if they are spending on their children. To capitalize on customer behavior during the sub-seasons, some big-box retailers plan seasonal displays with product manufacturers a year in advance or add grocery items prominently to increase the frequency of shoppers' visits, reported The Wall Street Journal. Full Story (WSJ Subscription Required) Asda raised its target for smaller-format shops to 250 as it integrates the purchase of the Netto chain and opens more outlets. The retailer is opening eight smaller stores a week and converted 61 Netto outlets so far, with its 100th supermarket opening next week. The company aims for 180 of the format by year-end, reported Bloomberg.com. Full Story
Industry NewsWholesale finished consumer food prices inched up only slightly in July but were still up 7.1% from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Full Story Kraft Foods launched the Triple Double Oreo. The cookie combines a layer of vanilla cream, a layer of chocolate cream and three layers of chocolate Oreo cookies, reported Chicago Tribune. Full Story (Free Registration Required) Cargill resumed ground turkey production at its Arkansas plant that was the source of a recall. Production resumed after the addition of new safety measures approved by USDA, including increasing by 25% an anti-bacterial wash for just-slaughtered birds, and adding two new anti-bacterial baths during the evisceration process. While the Arkansas plant is now producing a limited amount of 93% lean ground turkey, Cargill has not determined when it will resume making its 85% lean product, reported The Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Full Story (Free Registration Required) New! The Aug. 17 edition of New Products Hits and Misses with Phil Lempert profiles: Mediterranean Baked Lentil Crackers Sea Salt Flavor; Ciao Bella Sorbet Bars Blueberry Passion Flavor; Alexia Sweet Potato Crisp Bite Sized Puffs; Dr. McDougall's Right Food Asian Entree Thai Peanut Noodle Flavor; and Crunchy N Yummy Freeze Dried Bananas. Click here to view. About 60% of consumers reported drinking regular hot coffee or tea within the last month, second only to the 62% of consumers who had a non-diet carbonated soft drink during the same time period, according to Technomic's Market Intelligence Report: Coffee and Tea. Overall, grocery, drug and mass-merchandise stores experienced a 15.9% increase in coffee sales from 2007 to 2010. Green tea is of interest to nearly 73% of consumers, making it the most appealing flavor for hot or iced tea. Full Story Latest sales & earnings for food related companies (Updated Daily - FI Membership Required) Foster Farms Dairy is shifting its milk and orange juice production from Fresno, CA to a larger plant in Modesto. The company's Modesto plant has the capacity to process milk along with juices, ice cream, sour cream, cottage cheese and specialty dry powders and mixes, reported The Fresno Bee. Full Story (Free Registration Required) Washington NewsUSDA, Energy and Navy will invest up to $510 million during the next three years in partnership with the private sector to produce advanced drop-in aviation and marine biofuels to power military and commercial transportation. Full Story
Market NewsAbout 2.3% fewer fresh potatoes were sold last year than in 2009, according to Potato Sales & Utilization Estimates, a report from the U.S. Potato Board. Meanwhile, after significantly exceeding exports in 2007 and 2008, fresh imports returned to a level comparable to exports. In 2010, fresh foodservice sales vs. year ago were estimated to be off 1% compared to retail's decline of 3.1%. Nevertheless, over the past 10 years retail's share of total U.S. domestic sales has been relatively stable, accounting for between 57.7% and 60% of annual sales. Full Report The forecast for the 2011 cranberry crop is 7.50 million barrels, up 10% from 2010. If realized, this will be the second largest production on record. Production forecasts are up from last year in Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin but down in New Jersey, according to USDA. Full Report The 2011 California olive crop forecast is 65,000 tons, down 67% from last year's record crop of 195,000 tons. Bearing acreage is estimated at 36,000 for a yield of 1.81 tons per acre. Of the total production, an estimated 27,000 tons will be utilized for canning, and the remaining 38,000 tons are expected to be harvested for oil or specialty products, according to NASS. Full Report California melons are ripening en masse and should be in good supply through October after a slow start due to cool weather. "Everything is about two weeks later than usual," stated the owner of Wholeness Farm. Watermelons, cantaloupes and honeydews represent 99.2% of all melons sold in the U.S., according to Produce Retailer, while California will account for 205 million-lbs. of watermelon this season, according to the National Watermelon Promotion Board, reported The Sacramento Bee. Full Story (Free Registration Required)
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