A Manhattan federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Unilever on Tuesday that claimed the company misled US investors by not immediately disclosing a decision by its Ben & Jerry's unit to stop selling ice cream in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.
A Michigan pension fund sued in June 2022, seeking damages for a drop in Unilever shares after Ben & Jerry's announced in July 2021 it would stop sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem.
US District Judge Lorna Schofield ruled on Tuesday that Unilever was not required to disclose the boycott when Ben & Jerry's board decided on it in 2020 because Unilever had ultimate control over whether to implement it.
While Ben & Jerry's board oversees its social mission, Unilever retained authority over financial and operational decisions when it bought the ice cream company in 2000.
Schofield said the delay in announcing the board's resolution was likely "to determine what, if anything, to do about it."
An attorney representing the pension fund for fire and police in the Michigan community of St. Clair Shores and a Unilever spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The pension fund had sought damages for those who held Unilever American depositary receipts in July 2021, when they fell after several US states reviewed their relationships with the British consumer goods company and some Jewish groups accused Ben & Jerry's of antisemitism.
Founded in 1978, Ben & Jerry's has long positioned itself as socially conscious. It said in July 2021 that selling ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories was "inconsistent with our values."
Most countries consider Israeli settlements in those territories illegal, which Israel disputes. In 2022, Unilever sold its interest in Ben & Jerry's operations in Israel.
The Vermont-based ice cream maker sued to block the sale. The companies settled the dispute in December.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is seen during a discussion at the Annual CBI Conference, at Queen Elizabeth II Centre on November 25, 2024 in London, England.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Monday said she would never have to repeat the tax hikes of her first budget, an attempt to reassure businesses that were caught off-guard by a 25 billion-pound tax rise.
The Confederation of British Industry said a survey of its members showed 61 per cent viewed Britain as a less attractive place to invest and nearly half intended to cut staff levels or lower pay rises after a big increase in employers' social security payments.
The Labour Party's first budget in 14 years raised taxes by £40 billion in all. Prime minister Keir Starmer and Reeves said the tax increases would allow them to spend more on public services including the National Health Service.
Reeves said the budget had provided "the stability and platform that we need to move forward" and that business could now be certain in tax rates moving forward, adding she had heard a lot of feedback from the budget but not many alternatives.
"I'm really clear: I'm not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes," Reeves said at the CBI's annual conference, adding the budget had wiped the slate clean.
"As a result, we won't have to do a budget like this ever again."
CBI chief executive Rain Newton-Smith said that the National Insurance changes "caught us all off guard" and contributed to creating "a heavy burden on business."
Starmer earlier said that he wasn't surprised that budget measures had been criticised by those it impacted, adding the government had to take "big calls" to protect public services.
The CBI's complaint comes amid broader signs of an economic slowdown in Britain both before and after the budget, a blow to Reeves and Starmer who have pledged to make economic growth a priority.
But Britain's budget watchdog has said Reeves has left little room to absorb any increase in government borrowing costs without either raising taxes or missing her goal to reduce debt.
"Tax rises like this must never again be simply done to business," Newton-Smith said.
Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power, said there was a "changed atmosphere" compared to pre-election Labour events when the party was burnishing its pro-business credentials.
"It's important that government and business get back around the table," he told Reuters before hosting the conversation with Reeves.
"They need to get on the front foot and tell the story of how they get the growth, how they get the investment," he said, adding that any backtracking could knock confidence.
Britain has low investment by international standards and many economists see this as a key cause of its weaker productivity compared to the US, Germany and France.
More than a million illegal vapes were seized by Trading Standards in 2023/2024, new data released today from National Trading Standards (NTS) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) show.
A joint initiative named Operation Joseph has tracked over 1.19 million illegal vapes removed from sale across England, a 59 per cent increase in the number seized compared to the previous year. The products seized failed to meet basic UK safety standards, with most containing excess nicotine levels.
New data also shines a spotlight on sales of vapes to children. In Q4 2023-24, almost a quarter (24 per cent) of the 775 test purchases conducted in-person by Trading Standards resulted in illegal sales to under 18s.
Meanwhile, Operation CeCe — a joint initiative between NTS and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) running since 2021 — continues to disrupt the illicit tobacco trade. In 2023-24, over 19 million illicit cigarettes and more than 5,103 kg of hand-rolling tobacco worth £11.7 million were seized by Trading Standards. Since the operation started three years ago, 46 million illicit cigarettes and 12,600kg of hand-rolling tobacco have been seized, disrupting the illegal trade which undermines efforts to drive down smoking rates – including taxation policies.
“The protection of communities, public health and the safeguarding of honest businesses who are struggling to compete with the flood of illegal products lies at the heart of what Trading Standards does,” said Lord Michael Bichard, Chair of National Trading Standards.
“Trading Standards has seized nearly 1.2 million illegal vapes and more than £26 million worth of illicit tobacco so far. But the reality is further action is necessary to remove more illegal – and in many cases dangerous – products from sale.
“Illicit tobacco undermines legitimate retailers, funds wider crime, and harms public health while depriving our vital public services of around £2.2 billion a year,” said Richard Las, Director, HMRC Fraud Investigation Service.
“We will continue to work with partners like trading standards to tackle this organised criminal trade that harms our communities. These criminals don’t care who they sell to including children.
“We urge anyone with information about the smuggling, distribution or sale of illicit tobacco to report it online.”
Kate Pike, Lead Officer for Tobacco and Vaping for the Chartered Trading Standards Institute said: “Trading Standards officers recognise that it is really important that adult smokers are able to switch to legal compliant vaping products which carry a fraction of the risk of their lethal tobacco habit. These figures show we are working incredibly hard to remove illegal vapes from our communities and to support businesses not to sell to children. We encourage anyone with information about businesses ignoring the law to report to us so we can continue to target our enforcement resources most effectively.”
Speaking on behalf of the government, Andrew Gwynne, Minister for Public Health and Prevention added: “This shows just how many illegal and harmful vapes are on our streets, putting consumers and children at risk. To further crack down on illicit trade of tobacco products and vapes, we are investing an extra £10 million to keep these harmful products out of the hands of kids.
“The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will strengthen enforcement activity, allowing Trading Standards to take swifter action to enforce the law, including on non-compliant products, and closing loopholes.”
Retailers are calling on MSPs from across the political spectrum to work together to pass a Scottish Budget which is pro-business.
The Scottish Retail Consortium has called on Holyrood to avoid adding unwarranted costs onto business, and supports economic growth.
SRC sent its detailed Scottish Budget recommendations paper to Ministers and MSPs in September. It contained suggestions for cutting the cost of government, delivering competitive taxes and regulation, and combating crime against retailers.
However, last week it wrote to Finance Secretary Shona Robison to say that the sheer magnitude of the decision in the UK Budget on employer’s national insurance contributions had ‘fundamentally altered the outlook’, as it would add £190 million each year to Scottish retailers’ costs.
The SRC says the tax hike will have a disproportionate impact on the retail industry which is Scotland’s largest private sector employer.
Speaking ahead of the Budget on Dec 4, the director of the SRC, David Lonsdale, said: “The parliamentary arithmetic suggests that more than one political party will have to support the Scottish Budget this year.
“Whilst MSPs will rightly and robustly scrutinise the Scottish Government’s tax and spending plans it is vital politics doesn’t get in the way of ensuring a Budget that delivers for Scotland’s businesses. In these unsettling times when growth is weak, retail sales are flatlining, and taxes and other statutory costs are spiralling, businesses crave certainty and predictability.
“We therefore hope Scottish Ministers will bring forward a pragmatic pro-business Budget which doesn’t unfairly increase the cost of doing business and prioritises competitive business taxes. In return, that should maximise the chance of a collegiate approach amongst Government and Opposition MSPs which would ensure that a pro-growth and business-friendly Budget can be passed quickly without delay.
“Any failure to pass a Budget in good time would add a thick layer of uncertainty at an already challenging time for retail. We hope our political parties will collectively rise to the challenge.”
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BOOST's Jack Taylor (L) and Martin Rice of Green Field Marketing
Green Field Marketing Solutions have completed what is said to be “one of the UK’s biggest ever van sales operations”, driving distribution and increasing on-shelf space at convenience stores throughout GB for leading challenger brand, BOOST.
The operation involved a team of thirty, a fleet of 25 vans and a committed squad of professionals using the latest technology, explained Martin Rice, Operations Director, Green Field Marketing.
“Boost set us a big challenge with this sales blitz, but one we relished and were eager to deliver on. We used our state-of-the-art journey planning software to help drive efficiency and maximise call volume. This was supplemented by live data reporting and weekly updates, alongside a three-tiered quality control process, to help BOOST with internal stakeholder management.”
The van sales blitz focussed on three categories: BOOST Energy, Sport and Iced coffee.
“As one of the UK’s biggest ever van sales operations we knew from the outset that this was going to be a big undertaking for our team. We used our collective expertise, our on the ground knowledge of the convenience sector in England, Scotland and Wales, and our network of specialists, to create a plan that everyone was committed to.”
Green Field Marketing and its teams visited thousands of convenience stores over 12 weeks from July to September.
“BOOST set us a target of 22,000 convenience store visits with a focus on locations that have high population density and store concentration,” continued Martin. “It’s so gratifying to know that our efforts were not in vain. We visited 22,095 stores, selling over 52,500 cases whilst achieving a strike rate of over 61 per cent. We also audited the full BOOST drinks range during each visit to provide ongoing ROI outside of the product range on sale."
Adrian Hipkiss, Commercial Director, BOOST, said: “Green Field Marketing have been a trusted field sales partner for a number of years. We felt confident in their ability to deliver on this complex campaign and provide a springboard for the permanent field sales team going into the back end of 2024. Their dedication and drive to perform meant they overachieved on some lofty KPIs.”
Green Field Marketing is a specialist outsourced sales and merchandising company with offices in London, Dublin and Belfast.
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Image by REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo/File Photo
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), the world’s largest independent bottler of Coca-Cola, has announced a planned investment of £42.3m for a new Automated Storage Retrieval System (ASRS) warehouse at its site in Wakefield, Europe’s largest soft drinks plant by volume.
The new ASRS will take two and a half years to build. To maximise space, it will stand at 38 metres tall and will increase Wakefield’s warehouse capacity, allowing it to hold and move an additional 29,500 pallets on top of its current capacity of 29,000 pallets. It will also deliver a reduction of 18,500 vehicle journeys per year from the road, equating to 441,000 km per year.
This funding follows a £31m site investment for the installation of a new state-of-the-art, canning line, capable of producing 2,000 cans per minute, which has been operational since July of this year. The line provides additional production capabilities for CCEP’s light-weight 330ml cans across brands including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Fanta, Dr Pepper and Sprite.
As part of its ‘Everyone is Welcome’ ethos, CCEP has also been evolving its approach to recruitment, focusing on attributes like skills and potential rather than experience or qualifications, to encourage more people to consider a career in manufacturing. As part of its 550-strong workforce, this approach has helped the site attract more females to work on its new canning line this year; with three of four team leaders on the line being female and a total 40/60 women to men gender split on the new line.
The site has received £103 million in investment since 2019 to enhance efficiencies and operate more sustainably, such as the replacement of its material handling equipment (MHE). This includes a fleet of 75 gas-powered forklift trucks, which is used to move cases of product around the site, replaced with units powered by lithium ion batteries, producing no carbon emissions in their day-to-day operation.
Vanessa Smith, Director of Wakefield Supply Chain Operations at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners said: “The new ASRS warehouse ensures we continue expanding our production capabilities as we look to the future, and operate as efficiently and sustainably as possible.
“This follows on from the installation our state-of-the-art canning line, which became operational this summer. In addition to improving the sites capabilities of our lightweight cans, the new line and latest investments underscore our commitment to our Wakefield site and the 550 strong workforce who work here.”
Stephen Moorhouse, Vice-President and General Manager, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (GB), commented: “Wakefield offers a range of modern manufacturing jobs and sits at the heart of many of our latest manufacturing technologies. We’ve invested more than £100million since 2019 to help us evolve operations on site and further support the local economy.”
Simon Lightwood MP for Wakefield and Rothwell said: “CCEP continues to play an important role in and around Wakefield. It’s fantastic to see the business invest in delivering more efficient and sustainable operations, which shows the organisations commitment to being a major employer in West Yorkshire.”