Ambient foods

Ambient food producers may not have the short shelf-life issues of their colleagues in the chilled sector to contend with. But those manufacturing canned and dried products often have image and technical constraints to overcome, which new processes and marketing initiatives are helping to overcome. Keep in touch with the latest news from the sector.

City: Unilever strategy in emerging markets is 'hugely impressive'

06-Dec-2010 - 70% of Unilever’s sales could be generated in developing and emerging (D&E) markets by the end of the decade, according to City analysts covering a ‘hugely impressive’ investor seminar in Singapore run by the consumer products giant.

Heinz gears up for strike action at Kitt Green, Wigan

06-Dec-2010 - Heinz has "already taken steps" to ensure customers' shelves will remain stocked with Heinz beans in the event of strikes at its Kitt Green factory, bosses have revealed.

Anger brews as Twinings sales staff jet off to Portugal

06-Dec-2010 - Union bosses representing workers at Twinings' North Shields site are furious at the firm’s decision to send around 80 sales and marketing staff to Portugal for a training event.

Real Good Food Co anticipates 'significant growth' as sugar price hits 30-year high

30-Nov-2010 - Real Good Food Co is anticipating significant growth this year driven by a dramatic reversal of fortunes in its Napier Brown sugar business and an "exceptional" performance in bakery ingredients.

Symington's to create 40 new jobs

29-Nov-2010 - Symington's will create up to 40 new jobs next year as it opens a new factory in Leeds and evaluates options for a second new facility.

Patience with Amazon wears thin as grocery volumes remain sluggish

26-Nov-2010 - Food manufacturers working with Amazon on its UK online grocery store are becoming increasingly frustrated by its progress just over four months after the launch, with patience wearing thin in some quarters.

News in brief

Unilever slashes 1,200 SKUs in waste reduction drive

22-Nov-2010 - Unilever reduced its range by more than 1,200 stock keeping units (SKUs) last year as part of a bid to cut its long tail, prioritise top sellers and reduce waste, supply chain bosses have revealed.

Essenta Foods unveils new divisional bosses and confirms commitment to USA

18-Nov-2010 - Essenta Foods, the new business to be created from the merger of Northern Foods and Greencore, will be divided into four divisions with two bosses selected from each company.

City: Mass factory closures unlikely in Greencore - Northern Foods merger

17-Nov-2010 - While the proposed merger of Northern Foods and Greencore will inevitably mean job losses at both companies, it is unlikely to result in scores of factory closures, City analysts have predicted.

Premier Foods confirms talks over canning sites

17-Nov-2010 - Premier Foods has confirmed it has received approaches for its East Anglian canning factories at Wisbech and Long Sutton.

Premier Foods: Our suppliers are happy to pay 10k

15-Nov-2010 - More than three-quarters of recruitment suppliers that signed up to Premier Foods’ preferred supplier scheme last year have “already confirmed their interest in taking part again in 2011”, the company has claimed.

Premier Foods in talks with Princes over two sites

12-Nov-2010 - Premier Foods is in talks with Princes over the sale of its canning sites at Wisbech and Long Sutton in a bid to reduce its debt pile, FoodManufacture.co.uk understands.

Job losses announced at Walkers’ Peterlee crisp factory

12-Nov-2010 - Around 50 workers will lose their jobs at Walkers Peterlee crisp factory in County Durham, owner PepsiCo UK has confirmed.

Silvery Tweed Cereals pumps £1.175m into site upgrade

10-Nov-2010 - Family-owned Silvery Tweed Cereals has pumped more than £1m into extending and upgrading production and storage facilities at its site in Berwick-on–Tweed.

Ryvita restructuring will create 38 new jobs in Poole

10-Nov-2010 - A multi-million pound programme to turn an old warehouse next to the Ryvita factory in Poole into a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will be completed by next spring.

Twinings restructuring on course as ABF unveils ‘hugely impressive’ FY figures

09-Nov-2010 - The controversial restructuring of Associated British Foods’ (ABF’s) Twinings tea division is progressing to plan with capacity expansion in China “well under way” and construction of a new €45m (£37.7m) factory in Poland planned to commission early next year, bosses have confirmed.

BFAWU strike ballot called off at Fox’s Biscuits

08-Nov-2010 - A strike ballot called by the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU) at Fox’s Biscuits’ factories at Kirkham and Batley has been called off due to ‘technical’ glitches.

Big Interview

...And by the way, they're gluten free: The rise and rise of Mrs Crimble's

08-Nov-2010 - "Would you eat this?" asks Stiletto Foods md Jeremy Woods, thrusting forth a nondescript looking bar with the words ‘diabetic chocolate’ emblazoned over the front.

Northern Foods: Pay offer at Fox's Biscuits is fair

05-Nov-2010 - Northern Foods has defended its pay offer to staff at Fox's Biscuits as "very competitive in the current climate" following news that the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU) is balloting members at the Kirkham and Batley biscuit factories on strike action.

A run for your honey

01-Nov-2010 - I left school with O- and A-levels and got a job in a microbiology lab at a bakery, which funded a Higher National Certificate in food technology at South Bank Polytechnic.

Workers 'dismay' as Twinings pockets €12m EU fund for new Polish site

01-Nov-2010 - Twinings workers are “genuinely dismayed” by news that the firm has signed a contract to recieve €12m of EU funding for a new Polish site that will see UK jobs slashed.

Sales of Gordon Ramsay’s Seriously Good sauces top £3.7m in year one

19-Oct-2010 - More than two million jars of Gordon Ramsay’s Seriously Good premium Italian cooking sauces have been sold a year after launch, equating to sales of around £3.7m.