UK Prime Minister Theresa May has outlined the government's 25-year plan for reducing waste and tackling climate change, with a strong focus on plastic packaging. In a speech made last Thursday, May pledged to eliminate all 'avoidable' plastic waste by 2042, including bottles and other disposable packaging.
More and more UK retailers are latching onto the vegan trend, with 28% of Brits actively reducing their meat consumption, according to a 2017 report by Mintel. Increasing numbers of consumers are being influenced by campaigns such as Meat-Free Monday and Veganuary (vegan January). Sainsbury’s Tesco and Aldi have all recently introduced vegan private-label products, which suggests that the trend is here to stay.
New Zealand has added craft beer to the basket of goods it monitors to measure inflation, reflecting changing tastes and consumer spending in the country. Craft beer has surged in popularity among Kiwis in recent years, in addition to upsets in other industries at the expense of older technologies such new web-based services like Netflix.
French multinational dairy company Lactalis has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons since December, after at least 35 infants have been poisoned by salmonella from consuming baby formula produced by the company. The French government ordered a recall of the tainted products on December 8 and recently, President Emmanuel Macron said he has since ordered ministers to meet with retailers including Carrefour and Casino to discuss the failure to withdraw dairy company Lactalis’ salmonella-infected baby food products from store shelves.
Beer sales are set to rise again in Brazil, after declining volumes over the past three years, according to analysts from the Swiss bank UBS. With the economy recovering, consumers are becoming more inclined to try to premium brands and competition among local brewers is rationalising. That should mean a good 2018 with better margins for groups like Ambev, the maker of Budweiser, and others.
The world’s largest retailer Walmart said on Thursday it would raise entry-level wages for hourly employees to $11 an hour as it benefits from the biggest overhaul of the US tax code in 30 years, according to reports by the Irish Times. This increase and bonus will benefit over 1 million American hourly workers, the retailer said.
© 2018 - Checkout Magazine by Kevin Duggan
