Brian Sharoff, President of the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) and a visionary leader who had a profound impact on the development of private label at a global level, has passed away at the age of 77. The PLMA confirmed the news this morning, saying that Sharoff passed away on Saturday (23 May) after a short illness. Sharoff was named President of the PLMA in 1981, shortly after the business' formation, and over the next four decades led the way in terms of furthering the development of store brands across global retail. Today is a sad day for the entire PLMA family,” said Lisa Manzoline, director of sales for Reynolds Consumer Products and chairman of the board of directors of PLMA. “Under Brian Sharoff’s tremendous focus and dedication, the Private Label Manufacturers Association has grown to become a vital and essential resource for suppliers and retailers around the globe. Brian’s leadership will be greatly missed.”
Retailer Spar hit a market share of 35.6% in Austria in April, outperforming the rest of the Austrian retail sector in the period by a ratio of nearly two to one. Spar Austria said that sales growth across its business stood at 23% in the month of April, compared to an average 12.6% growth across the food retail sector. Over the first four months of the year, Spar Austria said that its market share averaged at 34.0%, putting it in a market leadership position in the country, reports esmmagazine.com. Commenting on the retailer's performance, chief executive Dr Gerhard Drexel cited a number of factors, saying “On the one hand, there is the decades of collaborating with our Austrian, regional and local partner suppliers from industry, trade and agriculture."On the other hand, our dedicated commitment to stable prices and attractive price offers for all of our customers in Austria – day after day and week after week – is a factor.”
Aldi Ireland has announced that all of its 1 litre fresh Irish milk cartons are moving to fully renewable and plant-based packaging. The change will affect more than 13.7 million cartons of milk annually, the discount retailer said. The move to renewable packaging, which sees cartons being made from natural materials such as sugar cane derivatives, has already been implemented across some of Aldi’s Clonbawn fresh Irish milk range, including 1 litre organic, skimmed, protein and buttermilk, as well as 500ml full fat milk.
Ivory Coast's April-to-September cocoa mid-crop will need more rain to strengthen the last stage of its development after most cocoa regions had well below average rainfall last week, farmers said. Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, is currently in its rainy season, which runs from mid-March to late October when there are meant to be regular downpours. Data collected by Reuters showed that rainfall was 23.8 millimetres (mm) last week in the eastern cocoa growing region of Abengourou, 19.5 mm below the five-year average.
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