Marketing Week
Co-op sets out “radical” ethical plan and membership target
Co-ophas unveiled its ethical plan, which outlines a set of joined up goals to drive its ethical and co-operative operations across all the business groups, including food, banking, pharmacy, travel and funeral care. The Co-op plans to go “beyond Fairtrade” and pledges to source 90% of its primary commodities from the developing world through Fairtrade by 2013 under the strapline of” If it can be Fairtrade, it will be Fairtrade”.
Morrisons makes e-commerce move
Morrisonshas made its first move into online retail with the acquisition ofKiddicare.com. The supermarket has agreed to buy the online baby wear retailer in a £70m deal. Morrisons plans to launch its online operations in 2012. It will build its online non-food business by developing the kiddicare.com platform and using its “state of the art freehold distribution facility”
Tesco’s global growth to outpace rivals
Tescois set to grow more quickly than its global rivalsWal-MartandCarrefourin the next five years. The UK based supermarket is expected to grow its global operations by 7.5% a year between 20011 and 2015 breaking the €100bn (£84.2bn) mark for the first time, according to international grocery analystsIGD. Its global sales are expected to reach €106.074m (£89.3m) by 2015 compared with €73.777m (£62.1m) in 2010.
The Grocer
Waitrose follows rivals with cuts on milk and bananas
Waitrosehas become the latest supermarket chain to lower prices of milk and bananas. The retailer has cut the price of four-pint bottles of milk by 30p and reduced loose bananas by 10p per kg. The cuts follow similar moves by Tesco,Sainsbury’sand Morrisons. The trio have all recently cut their prices to be in line withAsda, reducing milk from £1.55 to £1.25 for four litres and bananas from 87p to 77p a kg.
Cadbury unveils big race bar
Cadburywill be hoping to reach the number-one sales spot with its limited-edition Big Race bar, which marks the next stage of the firm’s Olympics campaign: Spots v Stripes Race Season. The launch will be supported by a £6.5m campaign including TV advertising, which kicks off on March 1 and runs for seven weeks until April 17. In addition, there will be digital and PR activity with Cadbury laying down four online and in-pack challenges and five off-line challenges, which offer consumers the chance to become Guinness World Record holders.
Greencore poised to re-enter battle for Northern
Greencoreis poised to re-enter the battle for control ofNorthern Foods. The Irish convenience group is reportedly in talks with potential private equity backers with a view to bolstering its all-share offer for Northern with cash. It has also asked the Northern to supply an update on last month’s trading and an updated full-year profit forecast.
Keri Link is a consultant on theInterim team at FreshMinds
