Supermarkets on employment drive
As the Supermarkets go from strength to strength will this have an effect on the downturn. The supermarket go on a big employment drive will this take the sting out of the recession.
But this growth in the supermarkets will have a down side, if the supermarkets continue to open new stores (small and large) then the smaller local produce shops will disappear even more than ever.
New jobs created
Iceland created 2,500 Jobs
Waitrose create 4,000 new jobs
Sainsbury's create 5,000 new jobs
Tesco create up to 10,000 new jobs
Creating up to 5,000 new jobs
Seasonal Produce
I work for a food manufacture. I think we should start buying seasonal produce, this will halp local producers and local growers. local produce. Why should we be able to buy strawberry’s in December, we buy so much food from around the world, do we care about who and how our food is manufactured.
Morrisons to create 5,000 new jobs
A Morrisons customer in Tynemouth. The company wants to add 90,000 sq metres of store space in coming years Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Morrisons has pledged to create 5,000 jobs this year, bucking the rise in unemployment as it looks to grow despite the economic downturn.
Britain’s fourth-largest supermarket group said this morning that it would create new positions across its chain of stores. The new roles will include working on Morrisons’ butchery, fish and bakery counters, said the personnel director, Norman Pickavance, although full details were not available.
“Even in these challenging economic conditions, Morrisons is committed to hiring and training new people to keep retail as the engine room of the economy and support our continuing growth,” Pickavance said.
sourced from The Guardian read full article
Tesco trails after new discount offers backfire
One of the largest supermarket changes in Britain “Tesco” has suffered over the Christmas period. It was the worse performing on the top four supermarkets. This article is in direct contrast to Sainsbury’s bumper Christmas sales.
The Article
Tesco will this week report the weakest Christmas trading of the big four supermarkets as doubts set in over its ambition to become “Britain’s biggest discounter”.
Analysts expect Tesco to post a 2.5% increase in like-for-like sales, lagging behind a field led by Morrisons, with an estimated 9%, nearly 7% at Asda and 4.5% at Sainsbury’s.
Last year Tesco introduced a range of discount brands such as “Country Barn” cornflakes and “Daisy” washing up liquid to compete with Aldi and Asda. Analysts fear that the cheaper brands cannibalise sales: because these brands cost less, Tesco must sell more to stand still.
“This is the first big mistake Tesco has made in a decade,” said Planet Retail analyst Bryan Roberts.
The supermarkets fared better than non-food specialists during a tough holiday season for the retail sector with results from specialists such as Currys and Argos, also due on Thursday, expected to make grim reading as consumers deferred spending on non-essential items. Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy will say that consumers let go of the purse strings to buy “special” Christmas treats for their families.
read full article sourced from The Observer
Sainsbury’s boost over Christmas
As recession is looming nearer. Sainsbury’s has had a good Christmas and is creating 5,000 near jobs this year.
Sainsbury’s served a recorded 22.5 million customers
Supermarket to employ 5,000 extra staff
A record-breaking Christmas is helping Sainsbury’s to create 5,000 jobs this year.
The supermarket – which already employs 150,000 – had its best ever festive season with sales for the last three months of the year up 4.5 per cent on the same period in 2007.
The group hired 20,000 temps to help cope with the surge in trade – 8,000 more than originally planned. read more
Waitrose plans to mix with the discounters
Waitrose is rebranding 1,450 own-label products and cutting prices on 450 lines in a bid to stop increasingly cost-conscious shoppers from defecting to rival supermarkets to find cheaper alternatives.
A new Essential Waitrose label goes into the chain’s 220 stores this week, starting with meat, fruit and vegetables. Prices on a third of the range will be slashed by up to 25%, at a cost of £25m.
Waitrose chief executive Mark Price described the new strategy as “the biggest decision and the biggest launch in the history of Waitrose” and an attempt to “totally reposition” the middle-class brand.
“The perception of our customers is that we are 25% more expensive than Tesco or Sainsbury. We know that is not the case – we match 2,500 products against Sainsbury’s prices, but we haven’t been able to get people to believe that. Hopefully now they will.”
A big promotional campaign to promote the new ranges is planned for TV.
Of the 1,450 brands involved, which represent 15% of Waitrose’s £4bn of annual sales, 1,200 are existing products that have been given a new look. The balance are new lines, such as standard-priced cakes and multi-packs of yoghurts that Waitrose has not previously stocked but that it has discovered shoppers go elsewhere to buy.
Waitrose has been losing market share, although Price said they were not losing customers. The problem, he said, was that they are buying fewer products – and picking up bargain staples at rivals.
All the supermarkets have reported big increases in sales of value and basic ranges, while premium labels, like Tesco’s Finest and organics, are now in decline. The “hard discounters”, including Aldi and Lidl, are now the UK’s fastest-growing grocers.
The Waitrose initiative was unveiled as its parent group, John Lewis, revealed another tough week of trading.
Sales at the department store chain in the last week of February were down 10% on the same week last year, with fashion and homewares particularly weak, recording declines of 9% and 18% respectively. The group said the later timing of Easter this year was partially to blame.
“Although John Lewis advanced some mitigating factors, the underlying trend in their sales has clearly deteriorated in recent weeks,” said Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight.
The last seven days are unlikely to have been much better as Debenhams and House of Fraser have been holding mid-season sales offering up to 25% off and as a result of its never-knowingly-undersold promise John Lewis has been forced to match prices on branded goods.
sourced from The Guardian
Has Tesco got too much power?
sourced from The Today Programme BBC Radio 4
