The first National Independents' Week will provide suppliers with their biggest ready-made promotional platform for the independent c-store and newsagent sector.

Makro has relaunched its store at Rayleigh in Essex after a refit that cost more than £5m. It is the second in a programme of major refits following the first at its Charlton store in south-east London a year ago.

MBL has re-launched its own-label wine range to improve the offer in Budgens and Londis.

Fewer English secondary school pupils are taking school dinners since changes in September intended to improve the quality of meals.

Recently appointed Blueheath CEO Mark Aylwin says he wants to move his company away from out-sourced logistics.

Bestway has "fine tuned" its restructure of the finance and administration functions of the Batley operation.

Lincolnshire-based specialist foodservice wholesaler Pilgrim Foodservice has joined the Today's Group.

== Premium range ==

Swithenbank Foods, the specialist fresh and chilled division of 3663, has opened a depot just outside London. It will be the first time the company has had a site dedicated to supply fresh produce to central London and the M25 area.

Sales for Today's Group's third quarter were up 5% year-on-year, exceeding performance expectations across its grocery, impulse and licensed categories.

Unity is my theme this month, as in "united we stand, divided we fall." We have collaborated very effectively over recent years with the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), and because it represents wholesalers' retail customers there is a natural bond between us.

The FWD My Shop Is Your Shop campaign is giving away 20 Christmas hampers to independent retailers to be passed on to deserving local cases.

A poll that was conducted on ProWholesaler's website has shown a massive majority in favour of smaller case sizes for wholesalers. The poll asked "Should suppliers provide smaller case sizes for the wholesale sector?" and 70% of the votes cast said yes.

Wholesalers and suppliers have been united in their tributes to Dudley Ramsden after the founder of Nisa-Today's announced that he would be retiring at the group's AGM on November 28.

? Job title: trading manager soft drinks

Sir Anwar Pervez, founder of the Bestway Group, was named Master Entrepreneur of the Year at the national awards ceremony.

Culina Logistics, the chilled food and drink supply chain, has appointed two new supply chain development managers, Mark Baldwin and Chris Hills.

Two new board members were elected at Landmark Wholesale's AGM.

Blueheath has appointed Gary Smith to a newly created position of group buying director.

november

Walkers Snacks was awarded the Catersummit Cup for Innovation at the FWD Catersummit 2006.

Landmark Wholesale held its annual Wholesaler and Supplier of the Year awards at the Think Tank at Millennium Point in Birmingham.

Debby Wellington, who heads the telesales team at Hackney-based Essex Flour and Grain, was crowned Country Range Employee of the Year at the awards ceremony during the group's annual conference.

LESSONS. This column will meander through the highways and byways of the collapsed Costcutter/Nisa-Today's merger, so thoroughly debated in the public prints.

East End Foods, the Birmingham-based Landmark Wholesale member, has introduced a new tilling system from STL Technology Solutions intended to provide it with enhanced central cash functionality.

GRP has recently provided Sailbrand with two new Ford Transit vans converted to provide dual compartment refrigeration.

Trident has added to its range of compact line thermal printers with Citizen's CT-S4000.

Sanderson has won a contract to supply an entry level software solution to Landmark member AJ Foods UK.

From the news columns you will glean that the My Shop Is Your Shop campaign has taken a huge step forward by extending National Independents' Day and converting it into National Independents' Week (NIW) from June 4 next year.

The first thing I do each day is start up my laptop and synchronise with Prism. This is the unique software that the Blueprint scheme has developed specifically to record all the regional specialist's calls and conversions and to monitor sales data pre- and post- a Blueprint makeover.

SKS Supermarket's Nisa-Today's store in Newcastle is one of the largest retail outlets in the area, serving a large community, and its owner, Kaleem Mazhar, prides himself on his dedicated off-licence area with its large selection of premium bottled ales.

Sales to Booker's catering and licensed customers returned to growth for the last quarter, according to director of catering development Ron Hickey.

Many suppliers do not provide the necessary service levels or appreciate the difference between wholesale for foodservice and for retailers, according to Damien Barrett, commercial director of Henderson Foodservice in Northern Ireland.

Chris Beckingham, foodservice trading controller of the Today's Group, gave an introduction to the three groups within the its foodservice business. He said 80% of the business was evently split between Today's Foodservice Trading Group and Country Range Group, the 16-strong foodservice buying group. The remainder of the business was accounted for by more than 100 other members who were predominantly cash and carry companies.

James Armitage, head of marketing at Brakes, stressed the value of understanding the customer's needs.

The role of the Government in highlighting the issues surrounding healthy eating, and forcing change, were highlighted by Ian Crawford, group commercial director of 3663.

Simon Marshall, managing director of Unilever Foodsolutions, said he was able to view the fooodservice sector as a relative newcomer, having moved from another part of Unilever to his present post about a year ago.

Graham Northfield, senior client manager of ACNielsen's Out Of Home Team, spoke about its latest service, the Delivered Catering Wholesale Service.

Sales director of Nestlé Foodservice Steve Pepperell asked three questions: are wholesalers being served by suppliers efficiently, are wholesalers being served so they in turn serve their catering and foodservice customers, and are wholesalers giving suppliers the information the suppliers need to correct their failings?

Anew study of caterers using cash and carries has given an insight into their businesses and their relationship with suppliers. HIM's Cash & Carry Caterer Tracking Programme involved interviewing 2,200 caterers during September at depots operated by Batleys, Booker, Makro and Landmark Wholesale members.

Del Monte Foodservice has launched two new products for the education sector.

Manchester Rusk Company is re-launching two of its food products with new packaging.

Seabay has launched Mini Fish in two variants, battered and breaded.

Imaginative Cuisine has created a range of balsamic reductions and garnishing oils.

Unilever Foodsolutions has added to its Knorr portfolio with the launch of Knorr Fine Gravy Granules for both poultry and meat dishes.

After the self-indulgent treat that is Christmas, many consumers have sworn off chocolate for the rest of the year. But Spring has it's own share of occasions and causes to tempt them back to consumption. Wholesalers should be planning ahead and having wide ranges on the shelves early. Easter is an obvious chocolate-heavy event, but the one-day occasions should not be overlooked.

Christmas can be a nervous time for wholesalers as they wait to see which drinks brands are going to have their prices cut to ribbons by the major multiples, but the brewers are trying hard to help wholesalers, and their customers, by offering exclusive packs and deals.

United Biscuits UK (UBUK) has new Christmas products as well as reintroduced festive favourites.

Unilever UK Home and Personal Care is continuing its £3.2m TV advertising campaign for Lynx Dry antiperspirant.

Britvic has launched a limited edition J2O Orange & Pomegranate flavour.

Bottlegreen Drinks Co has launched a range of organic fruit and herbal sparkling juice drinks called World Domaine.

Shloer is bringing back a festive limited edition and promoting use of its products as cocktail ingredients.

Heinz has introduced price-marked tins for a range of its soups.

RHM Frozen has relaunched its McDougalls Upper Crust premium family and individual pie range.

The Feel Good Drinks Company has launched Feel Good Squeezed Juice.

Walkers has unveiled additions to its Christmas range.

Dr Oetker has launched the deep pan pizza, Deep Crisp, to add to its range of frozen products.

Bacardi Brown-Forman Brands has launched a £1.4m advertising campaign for Bacardi Apple and Bacardi Berry.

Barrel Booze has introduced a new Italian range, Versare.

Brothers Cider has launched an advertising campaign to highlight Brothers Pear Cider.

Scottish & Newcastle UK is launching a poster campaign for Bulmers Original, the bottled cider launched this summer.

Pernod Ricard UK is offering a wide range of Christmas gift packs which aim to add glitz to the holiday season and boost sales.

Multiples and specialists, even garden centres and DIY stores, began their Christmas campaigns weeks ago. We've been building up the Christmas spirit in the depot to help bring forward seasonal spend. A series of one-day specials with cracking offers on food, non food and drink should help.

Surely, if you want to flavour your beans with a touch of Worcestershire sauce, you can splash it on from the bottle. Honestly, will this really help grow the category or just increase stockholding? To HJH's credit, price-marking soups exclusively for independents is a good move.

Iceland is proving there is life in the category and even struggling Morrison's has placed considerable emphasis on its frozen food offering recently. Our buyer is taking a closer look at ranging and the massive ready meals market which reaches far beyond our meagre shepherds pie and lasagne offerings.

While the French dig up their vineyards, Australia is massively over-producing and California may soon be in the same position. But it's not all bad. As consumers, we have never been so well provided for, with a fantastic choice of wines at affordable prices. In our sector, the ranging and merchandising advice provided by the FWD Wine Blueprint has produced some outstanding results.

Who is leading the battle to protect this vital life line to so many vulnerable individuals and isolated communities? And will we be among the losers if these businesses are forced to close?