Did You Know?... Aldi Ireland has named Marie McCarthy from Carrigaline, Co. Cork as the winner of The National Brown Bread Baking Competition. The national competition is run by the discounter in association with the National Ploughing Association (NPA) and the Irish Countrywomen's Association (ICA). Winner McCarthy will receive a cash prize of €15,000 and her bread will be available across Aldi's 143 Irish store network, in the coming weeks. “I spent much of the lockdown perfecting my brown bread and it has certainly paid off," McCarthy said. "I can’t wait to see my loaf on all Aldi shelves nationwide in the near future,” she added.
Did You Know?... Lidl Ireland has announced that its newly opened Newbridge Regional Distribution Centre has achieved BREEAM certification. This is the first distribution centre in Ireland to be awarded with BREEAM certification – the world’s leading sustainability assessment for buildings, the discounter said. As part of the certification process, Lidl Ireland said that it has partnered with BirdWatch Ireland to install 45 bird boxes at the retailer’s Newbridge Distribution Centre, to help maintain the natural wildlife habitat and enhance biodiversity. The installation comprises a mix of bird boxes catering to a broad scope of bird species with the addition of several bat boxes, which have also been installed at the Newbridge facility to support night-time pollination, it added. Commenting on Lidl Ireland’s achievement of BREEAM, Dr Shamir Ghumra, BREEAM director at BRE said: "This represents a great achievement for both Lidl and BREEAM in Ireland where we see a growing demand for BREEAM in response to a global movement for change and market transformation."
Did You Know?... Lithuanian retailer Maxima Grupė has posted 6.3% year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue in the first half of its financial year, to €2.05 billion, driven by expansion in Poland. The company’s consolidated like-for-like (LFL) retail revenue increased by 1.2% in this period, reports esmmagzine.com The retailer reported strong growth in LFL revenue in the first quarter (+5.2%), followed by a decline of 3.4% in the second quarter due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Did You Know?... French retailer E.Leclerc has announced that it has replaced plastic bags from its cash registers with reusable hessian bags in all 721 stores across the country. The initiative, which comes into effect today (21 September), is part of the retailer’s efforts to remove plastics from its operations and will help in eliminating 7,000 tonnes of the material annually. The new reusable burlap bags with organic cotton handles are priced at €1.50 each, E.Leclerc added.
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