Aldi is to appoint a senior international director responsible for human and labour rights and publish an international human rights policy. The development comes after the German retailer was urged to “up its game” and “drive out suffering and hunger” from its supply chains by Oxfam director of campaign and policy Matthew Spencer last week. It also follows a blog post published by the charity this week [October 16] which sets out why it is campaigning against the discounter.
Nestlé is relaunching a range of Maggi products in the UK and Ireland with improved recipes as well as updated packaging designs to boost stand out on-shelf. Maggi’s Fusian and 3 Minute Noodles block range and So Juicy and So Tender dry recipe mixes have been reformulated using more of the “familiar ingredients that people would find in their kitchen cupboard”.
UK retailer Tesco has expanded its plant-based Wicked Kitchen range, as the demand for vegan food choices has soared in the country over the last year. Tesco introduced the Wicked Kitchen range in January, and claims that sales of chilled vegan products at the retailer have increased 25% in the last year. To meet this demand, Tesco has more than doubled the range, introducing 26 new products and the ‘UK’s first’ vegan sausage roll.
Johnnie Walker has launched The John Walker Masters’ Edition – a triple-matured Scotch whisky that has been crafted from six exceptionally rare whiskies, each aged for a minimum of 50 years. This is the first time the brand has released a 50-year-old Scotch whisky and just 100 bottles of this unique liquid have been created.
Britvic will see its newest and juiciest Fruit Shoot addition hit UK TV screens nationwide from October for the first time as a 10 second tag at the end of the brand’s ‘It’s My Thing’ advert. This news follows the latest figures revealing that Juiced is the number one kids drink launch over the last year1. The 30-second advert will run between October and November this year and will re-appear in January and February 2019 for another burst, to drive even further awareness of the brand, especially amongst parents of children aged between 4 and 8 years-old.
Procter & Gamble wants retailers to share their customer data so that it can serve more targeted ads. The world’s biggest advertiser is pitching the idea of Performance Marketing Retail Partnerships to retailers across Europe, India, the Middle East, and Africa. In exchange for loyalty-card data, for example, P&G will optimize ad campaigns to customers who are likely to buy from specific supermarkets, supposedly increasing the retailer’s likelihood of making a sale.
Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to sell its Danish upstream business to oil firm Norwegian Energy (Noreco) for $1.9 billion, as part of its wider divestment strategy, the company said on Wednesday. The sale brings Shell to virtually complete a three-year $30 billion divestment plan it started in 2015 following the acquisition of BG Group. The sales included a number of major portfolios in the British North Sea, Gabon, Thailand, and Canada.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
