Cereal-maker Weetabix has announced James Bruce as its new Commercial Director and a member of its Executive Leadership team this November.
Previously working with Tropicana Brands Group as UKI Commercial Director and Commercial Strategy Director for Europe, James played a key role in piloting its creation as a new business following its separation from PepsiCo.
This follows over 20 years’ experience in senior roles with international food and drink company, Danone where he drove the success of flagship brands such as Actimel and Activia in the UK and a number of markets in Europe.
“We’re delighted to welcome James to the Weetabix team," said Colm O’Dwyer, Managing Director of Weetabix. “With strong experience in driving business growth, creating dynamic commercial strategies, and raising vital engagement with customers in both the UK and Europe, he is a perfect addition to the Weetabix family.“
I look forward to working closely with James as he brings his wealth of experience, energy and enthusiasm to his new role.”James will be leading the Weetabix Commercial Team in the UK and internationally, a role previously held by O’Dwyer, who became Managing Director in October.
Seven in ten independent retailers across the UK are boycotting Black Friday this year, as rising operational costs and economic pressures continue to impact small businesses, according to the latest survey from the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira).
The annual survey reveals that 70.5% of independent retailers are refusing to participate in the pre-Christmas sales event, continuing a strong trend of resistance seen over the past four years. In 2021, 85.5 per cent boycotted the event, followed by 86.8 per cent in 2022, and 86.6 per cent in 2023. This year's figures show that while some retailers are testing the waters with Black Friday promotions, the majority remain steadfast in their opposition.
The survey also highlighted growing concerns about Black Friday's impact on independent retail, with 75.4 per cent believing it negatively affects the high street—a significant increase from 68.8 per cent last year.
"Our survey demonstrates that independent retailers are taking a strong stance against Black Friday discounting during these challenging economic times," said Andrew Goodacre, CEO of Bira. "With increased staffing costs and squeezed margins, many of our members are already operating on tight margins while offering competitive prices year-round. The pressure to slash prices further during Black Friday simply isn't viable for small businesses."
Retailers across the country shared their experiences and concerns about the impact of Black Friday. "Bike shops now go quiet in October and November because of Black Friday with an expectation of heavy discounting," reported one retailer, while another observed, "I suspect overall the industry will be flat on sales, with Black Friday simply causing a pause in sales in October and a reduction in December."
The pressure on brick-and-mortar stores was particularly evident, with one retailer saying: "As a bricks and mortar retailer, we get lots of consumers looking and choosing products but not purchasing. I believe they purchase them elsewhere on Black Friday."
The recent autumn budget has added to retailers' concerns, with one commenting: "It has just made everything worse. Simply can't afford to cut margins that are desperately needed to cover the extra expenses."
Despite these additional pressures, 87.7 per cent of retailers maintained their position that the autumn statement hasn't made them think differently about Black Friday.
"UK B2B price restrictions and tiered pricing dependent on volume hurt the consumer and smaller retailers, Black Friday just amplifies the effect," explained another retailer, highlighting the structural challenges faced by independent businesses.
Mr Goodacre said: "Independent retailers are the backbone of our high streets. Rather than competing in an unsustainable race to the bottom on pricing, especially during these economically challenging times, our members focus on providing quality products, exceptional service, and genuine value throughout the year. We encourage shoppers to support these local businesses that contribute so much to our communities."
Harrison Retail, a leading Point of Sale (POS) partner for retailers across the globe, has unveiled its state-of-the-art showroom located in Evesham, exhibiting 15 bespoke POS loss prevention solutions designed to combat opportunistic theft in-store.
Shoplifting and opportunistic theft, costing retailers an estimated £1.8 billion annually (BRC 2024), continue to pose immediate and long-lasting threats to retailers across the globe. Harrison said it recognises the urgency of addressing in-store vulnerabilities by identifying high-risk areas and integrating loss-prevention solutions to safeguard revenue, protect staff and curate a frictionless shopping experience for customers.
Last week, Harrison Retail marked the opening of its showroom with an exclusive inaugural retail loss prevention event, bringing together key stakeholders from across the retail sector and talks from industry experts: Simon Singleton, Former COO of H&B and Pepco Group UK, Simon Hedaux, co-founder of Rethink Retail and Adrian Beck, professor at the University of Leicester for the ECR Retail Loss Group.
Guests were invited to tour a fully operational supermarket replica, showcasing a selection of bespoke POS loss prevention solutions in-situ, designed to minimise the volume of products that can be removed from shelving without compromising customer shopping experience. The showroom also features a multi-functional space equipped to accommodate up to 50 guests for presentations, events, workshops and more.
“While retailers’ efforts to combat shoplifting through defensive merchandising are well-intentioned, we are seeing them trigger unintended consequences as a result of compromised shelf appeal, replenishment rates and customer selection, ultimately limiting business success,” Daryl Bedford, manager director of Harrison Retail, said.
“This is why we created our point-of-sale loss prevention solutions, which are equally as effective in deterring criminal activity. However, they preserve the integrity of store layouts and access to products, keeping customers at heart. We strive to secure retail spaces with our innovative fixtures designed to limit accessibility to high-value merchandise and reduce the volume of products stolen from displays, combatting stock shrinkage.
“We’re thrilled to open our showroom to prospecting and existing customers who can explore our product offering in a realistic retail setting from which we can collaborate to craft a customised solution tailored to each retailer’s targets.”
Supermarket Tesco is planning to open 150 new convenience stores across the UK over the next three years as part of a major expansion, creating more than 2,000 jobs in local communities across the country.
The supermarket chain has not confirmed where it plans to open any of these new stores. The supermarket chain announced the plans for its Tesco Express sites last week as it celebrated the 30th anniversary of its convenience store brand. Tesco has over 4,000 supermarket stores overall across the UK.
The supermarket opened the doors of the first Express store in Barnes and Norbury, London in 1994. Most recently, the supermarket chain opened a new Express in Burnt Oak in northwest London. The new site opened close to where Tesco's first-ever site - founded by Jack Cohen - opened in 1929. The Burnt Oak Express store in North London will be the supermarket’s 2,882nd UK store.
Tesco managing director of UK stores Kevin Tindall said, “I’m delighted that we have come full circle and returned to the street where it all began, with Jack Cohen’s first store in Burnt Oak. Burnt Oak has a special place in Tesco history, and we’re proud to be serving its local community once again – alongside thousands more across the country.”
The supermarket opened the doors of the first Express store in Barnes and Norbury, London in 1994.
Similar to other supermarket chains, Tesco has increasingly prioritized its convenience store offerings over the past year. Most recently, the retailer unveiled significant price reductions on staples like bread, milk, and chicken, spanning 200 product lines in its Express stores. According to Tesco, these prices have been reduced by an average of 10 per cent.
Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said at the time, “Today’s round of price cuts on more than 200 lines in our Express stores underlines our commitment to offering great value to Tesco customers.
"Whether you are picking up coffee and milk for the office or a loaf of bread and a tin of soup on the way home, our Express stores offer both convenience and great value.”
PepsiCo has launched a new campaign, 'She is PepsiCo', celebrating women in supply chain and operations roles at its UK sites, aiming to inspire more women to pursue frontline roles.
As part of the campaign, portraits of three of its female employees will replace the current design on three trucks used across its distribution network. This will showcase the women’s major roles in bringing much-loved snacks, like Walkers Sensations, Snack A Jacks and Sunbites, to the nation.
The campaign features Manjit Kaur, manufacturing technician in Leicester, who started her career chopping potatoes at the Walkers factory in 2011, and Ewa Doroslawska, manufacturing technician in Coventry, whose PepsiCo career spans almost 20 years. Alex Praja in Skelmersdale, also a manufacturing technician, decided to pursue a career in engineering after joining PepsiCo, completing the group of women heroed in the campaign.
The trio were nominated by their respective site directors, who were asked to highlight employees consistently going above and beyond in their roles.
“I'm very proud of this nomination – it’s something I never expected and to get this kind of recognition is amazing. It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, you can reach the same goal if you have a willingness to learn and you put your mind to it,” Kaur said.
Doroslawska added: “The world is changing for women and it makes me really proud to see more women coming into frontline work. Taking the first step is often the hardest bit, but believe in yourself – you have nothing to lose!”
Praja said: "I don’t always have confidence, so it feels really good to be part of She Is PepsiCo. I hope I can inspire more women to give engineering a try because we need more women in the industry."
The trucks were initially unveiled at special ceremonies taking place across PepsiCo’s Leicester, Coventry and Skelmersdale sites and have now hit the roads.
Manjit, Ewa and Alex also received a grant of £5,000 to donate to a local women’s charity of their choice, and chose Women’s Aid Leicestershire, Kairos Women Working Together, and Young Women’s Trust respectively. Families, friends and colleagues of Manjit, Ewa and Alex also attended the celebrations.
“We’re proud to be spotlighting the incredible work of women in frontline jobs across our sites, and bringing their stories to people all over the UK. As well as recognising their crucial role in producing some of the UK’s most-loved snacks, we hope this campaign will inspire more women to pursue careers in manufacturing and operations,” Alison Atkins, HR director supply chain, Pepsico UK & Ireland, said.
PepsiCo said it currently have open roles at the Leicester, Coventry and Skelmersdale sites.
Unilever’s largest UK food factory in Burton has undergone a significant five-year transformation, bringing production of the full Unilever UK condiments business into one specialist hub in Burton.
With 99 per cent of products made at Unilever’s Burton site distributed to UK retailers, the FMCG major said the investment will support the continued growth of its foods business in the UK with a focus on driving supply chain efficiencies, boosting capabilities and delivering significant production growth at the site.
A second state-of-the-art factory has been built alongside the existing factory, increasing the site’s footprint by 50 per cent to 31,000 sqm and bringing production of Hellmann’s to the site, alongside Marmite, Bovril and Colman’s.
Investment in digital capabilities has created a highly optimised site across two food factories and nine production lines, doubling volume alongside a 13 per cent increase in total factory efficiency at the site in the last three years. With the final investment of the transformation complete this year on a new Hellmann’s production line, 2024 is set to be a record year for the factory, with the site producing an average of 9 million jars and bottles of condiments a month.
Hellmann’s production line at the new Unilever factory at Burton
The new factory includes state-of-the-art machinery and automation, including automated production lines using real-time data capture and analysis on the factory shop floor to boost efficiency and minimise waste, and a fully automated palletisation process, with two robotic arm palletisers and three top loading palletiser robots that pack over 1,000 pallets a day. 3D-printing machines and capabilities have also been brought in-house so standard machine parts can be replicated and replaced at speed.
The investment and growth of the site has resulted in 160 new jobs at the factory whilst also supporting current employees to develop new skills in digitised manufacturing, building on the site’s 100-year history of supporting local jobs and skills.
“The investment in our Burton site and new factory reaffirms the site as a key food hub for British produce, making delicious condiments that are helping to create meals in homes up and down the country every day,” Andre Burger, Unilever UK & Ireland foods lead, said.
“By bringing all our condiment production under one roof and focusing on advancing digital capabilities, we’ve really optimised our supply chain and manufacturing whilst significantly increasing the site’s capacity. The investment has already delivered record breaking growth for the site and will be key in supporting the continued growth of our food business and market leading brands here in the UK.
“This investment is a celebration of our history in Burton as well as a commitment to its future. It is testament to the continued commitment and expertise of our teams at the site that its transformation has delivered such incredible growth so quickly.”
In addition to boosting productivity, the investment has accelerated the reduction of the environmental footprint of the site, with a focus on minimising food waste and reducing the carbon footprint of products. The increased use of real-time data analysis at the site has helped to halve the site’s food waste since 2021 with the remaining waste redistributed, including to create energy for the factory via the on-site biogas recycling plant or feed for local farm animals.
The final-stage production of Hellmann’s 100% recycled plastic squeezy bottles – the stage at which the basic recycled plastic material is blown into the full-size distinct Hellmann’s squeezy bottle shape - has been bought onto the site. Localising these aspects of Hellmann’s production and packaging has significantly reduced lorries on the road and travel time from production to shelves, resulting in CO2 savings.