The 'Totally Terrific Tomato Festival' will take place at Dublin's Airfield Estate next month, reports HospitalityIreland.com. Celebrating its 10th birthday, this festival that champions the culture and diversity of tomatoes will have a specific focus on taste for its residence in Airfield on the weekend of 27 and 28 August 2022. As was the intention of its founder, Nicky Kyle, this festival will continue to celebrate the diverse fruit with a display of over 100 tomato varieties. Airfield Estate CEO Claire MacEvilly stated, "Airfield Estate is encouraging people to get to know their food. We are delighted to put the spotlight on tomatoes and host the festival. The catalyst for bringing the festival to Airfield was the desire to carry out a tomato taste test, a sensory experiment whereby Airfield will pitch four distinct tomato varieties against each other to find the tastiest tomato for our garden team to grow. Our four open pollinated contenders have big boots to fill but ultimately with the help of the public the tastiest tomato will reign supreme."
French dairy group Lactalis has bought Ambrosi from Switzerland's Emmi and the family that founded the Italian cheese maker, Emmi said in a statement. The groups did not disclose the purchase price but a source told Reuters that the deal gives Ambrosi an enterprise value of about €300 million ($307 million) and allows Lactalis to widen its product range and create several production synergies. Lactalis has expanded in recent years and bought Italian dairy group Parmalat in 2011. The family-owned group counts many household names such as France's brie cheese maker President and Italy's mozzarella producer Vallelata among its brands.
Carrefour Italia intends to open 95 stores this year, having reached a total of 1,500 outlets across Italy, including both directly-owned and franchised stores, reports ESMmagazine,com. This follows the retailer's recent agreement with Apulia Distribuzione for the integration of 38 stores in Sicily under its banners, as well as the acquisition of 14 Unes franchised stores in Lombardy. Carrefour Italia CEO Christophe Rabatel told daily Corriere della Sera that the French retailer reported 1.7% sales growth in the first half of 2021 compared to a year agao.
© 2022 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. For more retail news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
