Elsevier Food International

Volume 4, No. 1 February 2001

Brand Vision
Former Formula 1 driver Paolo Barilla knows all about the rising pressure, faster speed and mounting retailer power in the manufacturing arena. "As competition heats up, you've got to increase your innovative performance," he says. He's steering AIM into the future.

Driving change

EFI Special
All is not well between retailers and manufacturers. While the former continues its power march forward, the latter are often stuck paying the bill. Global sourcing and global promotions - as executed, for example, by the three most global retailers Carrefour, Ahold and Wal-Mart - and EDLP strategies are causing concern. The source of all the aggravation? Consolidation.

Power Play: Who’s footing the Bill?

ECR
Effective, strategic knowledge management is vital if a company wants to capture value and enhance its competitive positioning. How best can knowledge be used to gain insight into the consumer, and in what ways are the roles of players within the supply chain being redefined?

Knowledge Management: Maximum efficiency, Maximum benefits

R & D
Food retailers and producers keep assuring consumers that current food safety standards are the highest ever. Though this may be true, hardly a week goes by without a breaking food scandal making headlines. The farm-to-table approach obviously contains some weak links. But how best can these be traced and - most importantly - eliminated?

From farm-to-table: Finding the missing link

Instore
Lighting: - it can enhance the in-store shopping experience and ensure that produce appears to its best advantage, thereby boosting sales. Yet the average supermarket has put lighting systems low on its list of priorities. With a plethora of new, energy-efficient options now on the market, it's time to reconsider - and to reformulate - the illumination strategy.

Let There Be Light

Country Profile
Over 31 million people living in an area of almost 1.4 billion square kilometres: that's Europe's Nordic region, where the density of population and stores is low, but opportunities for expansion are high. And when it comes to the retail sector within the different countries, it's the similarities - rather than the differences - that prevail.

Northern Europe

Food Buying
Straightforward and close to the buyers' core business - these are the watch-words of Europartners, a buying alliance made up of Superunie of the Netherlands, Somerfield of the UK and Colruyt of Belgium. Europartners has big plans to increase its scale of operations rapidly.

Europartners: The Buyers' Business

Retail Profile
Less than two years after merging with Fred Meyer Inc, The Kroger Company is achieving synergy savings at a much faster pace than was initially expected. But if the company is optimistic, analysts are even more so: they expect savings to reach US$415 million. So just how has this company managed to turn itself around so quickly and so successfully?

The Kroger Story: E-merging Emotions

Fresh Foods
Southern European cuisines are renowned for their tasty, healthy menus, featuring low fat consumption and a large share of vegetables.

Who's fond of tomatoes?