While the row over UK farmgate milk prices rumbled on this week, elsewhere first-half results hit the just-food news desk. Safeway sounded an upbeat note on the performance of its loyalty programme and the group’s dominance in retail personalisation for consumers. Elsewhere, just-food spoke with Mizkan EuroAmericas president Craig Smith who spoke about the firm’s plansfor the business long-term.
“We stand here as the first food retailer to have this kind of personalisation. I believe that others will follow, that others are trying to do this now. I believe we have a substantial lead” – Safeway Inc CEO Steve Burd explains the merits of its Just for U loyalty scheme.
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“Trading has been quite difficult. We have fx headwinds, which isn’t really a trading issue – its an earnings issue – the consumer is under pressure in several European markets, including the UK, and that has led to down trading to cheaper cuts of meat” – a spokesperson for Hilton explains the challenging conditions in its key markets.
“The hope is that we can build the UK organisation to a scale that is similar to North America and use the economies of scale to introduce new products to the consumers that haven’t been done before” – Mizkan EuroAmericas president Craig Smith talks to just-food about the firm’s plansfor the business long-term.
“We are a consolidator in the industry – we are the market leader and despite that we have lower earnings compared to last year, our absolute earnings are much higher than our comptitors” – Sligro Food Group CFO Huub van Rozendaal says the company is well-positioned to capitalise on consolidation opportunities as and when they are presented.
“Retailers are under pressure because their consumers are under pressure. Consumers are looking to keep the cost of their shopping down. So we are seeing some pressure on liquid milk prices” – Arthur Reeves, Dairy Crest external affairs director, says the company is facing strong pressure from UK retailers to keep liquid milk prices down as it vies with the other dairy processors for retail contracts.
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