Today's Group member Wanis, the Afro-Caribbean importer, cash and carry and distributor, has opened new £17m custom-built premises in Leyton.

3663 has signed a joint venture agreement with Al Islami, a Halal food producer from the United Arab Emirates, to distribute its range of Halal meat products in the UK.

The FWD My Shop Is Your Shop (MSYS) campaign has welcomed research which revealed that more than three quarters of smaller retailers believe that support for their local community is good for business.

Country Range Group has recorded "fantastic growth", even before one of its members clinched a £6m contract, according to managing director Colin Birchall.

Key Lekkerland member T&A Symonds is continuing to service all its commitments to the group, despite being taken over by Key's main rival Palmer & Harvey McLane.

Employers of lorry drivers must plan ahead to prevent a recruitment crisis. That's the message from a survey released by Skills for Logistics, which reveals one LGV driver in six is currently aged 55 or over.

Distribution group Bibby has acquired a 51% stake in Costcutter Supermarkets Group.

Brakes is to launch a new style outer carton that will potentially reduce cardboard use by more than 20% from its most popular frozen products.

Makro has teamed up with Procter & Gamble to support the Meningitis Trust this month by donating a percentage of its profits to the charity, aiming to raise over £100,000.

The Nestlé Rowntree Manager of the Month for September is awarded to Alan Mills, general manager of Booker in Shawfield.

Makro is launching a new range of Polish products in stores based in areas with established Polish communities.

Three trade charities, the Confectioners Benevolent Fund, Caravan and NewstrAid have given their support to a new UK charitable coalition group, Benevolence Today. The group is made up of 31 charities, which between them helped 26,000 people last year.

Product range, competitive pricing and the quality of produce on arrival are the top three considerations when selecting a wholesaler, according to Cotswold Fayre.

Food and drink nutrition labelling has not traditionally been seen as one of the hot issues for our trade. But as you will no doubt be aware, that has all changed in the past year or so, as companies have aligned themselves around front-of-pack labelling schemes based either on Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) or some form of so-called traffic lights.

MBL is planning to invest about £50m in developing what supply chain director Scott Wharton says will be the best supply chain in the grocery market. The main board has signed off the five-year plan and he confidently says: "It will be better than anything the multiples have."

One of the best known faces in the wholesale industry, Chris Rose, marketing director of Landmark Wholesale, has announced his retirement date.

Landmark Wholesale member Parfetts Cash & Carry has appointed Bill Knight as ambient buyer at its Sheffield depot.

Allan Burns has been appointed chairman of Scotland Food & Drink.

? Job title: foodservice controller

Landmark Wholesale's South-Wales member BA Cash & Carry has praised its retailer customers at its Annual Business Achievers Awards.

A new trade show covering the food-to-go category is being held at Excel in London on October 16-17.

Holmes Wholesale Services hosted the Today's Group's Sporting Madness road show in Northern Ireland.

== September ==

CONTRARY. The airwaves are alive with the sound of the great and the good just as we arrive on the cusp of the momentous judgement on the Big Four about to be delivered by the Competition Commission (CC).

Across the country, the UK has one of the most sophisticated logistics supply chains in the world - and this is the same for cash and carry businesses. No stone is left unturned in the process of improving efficiency when it comes to getting product to the marketplace. However, we should not rest on our laurels. Indeed, there are still areas where we can improve as an industry.

It's the nuts and bolts of any promotional activity which matters and not simply the publicity which attends campaigns such as My Shop Is Your Shop with its unique theme of Local And Proud Of It.

A new tobacco room installed by Gallaher, giving the category extra visibility at Batleys' depot at Salford Quays in Manchester, is the most obvious demonstration of the way the two companies work together to drive sales, but there is a lot more to it than that, says Mike Bailey, northern area manager for the wholesaler.

With more wholesalers adopting the FWD Take Home Blueprint principles - and with the Blueprint for Wine continuing to be the most requested guidance by independent retailers - the industry's proved impartial benchmark programme is in surge mode.

Top decision makers from across the industry will be making presentations at this year's Catersummit. Now in its 18th year, the FWD's annual conference for the catering and foodservice sectors will be identifying the key issues and looking at strategies for dealing with them.

The number of people visiting a fast food outlet (ie burger van, fish and chip shop, kebab, pizza or chicken shops) in a typical week has decreased over the last 12 months, from 18% of the UK population to 14%.

Baxters has launched a new size for its frozen soup range.

Creative Foods, the manufacturing business of Brakes, has developed a range of four main courses and two desserts with Annabel Karmel.

Nescafé has launched the Nescafé &GO for caterers to cash in on the growing demand for coffee on the go.

Sacla UK is teaming up with distributor Universe Foodservice.

Lyons Seafood is launching a range of products for the Christmas menu.

We are currently living in a world of electrical gadgets and these power hungry little appliances require batteries to keep them going. The total battery market is worth £350m, according to Energiser, and it claims to be the only major battery brand in growth, adding over £10m a year in incremental sales, and producing more than six billion battery cells annually.

The strong demand for chilled food from smaller stores has been demonstrated by the major multiples' c-stores, but the independent sector has been slow to catch on. One of the strongest offerings is from Londis, which supplies 700 fresh food lines from its regional service centres with an additional 40 lines delivered to its members by Greencore.

Imperial Tobacco has added to its range of rolling papers with the launch of Rizla Smooth.

Mars UK has launched a £1.6m TV advertising campaign to promote Twix as the perfect tea break snack.

Pepsico has launched Walkers SunBites as its first wholegrain snack.

Nestlé Rowntree has introducing three new dark premium chocolate blocks under the Black Magic brand.

Heinz is adding a Snap Pots format to its Beanz and Pasta range.

R&R, formerly Richmond Ice Cream, has added to its Loads More Fun ice cream range.

Cadbury Trebor Bassett is re-launching its Wispa bar as a limited edition.

Speciality toffee manufacturer Walkers' Nonsuch is encouraging independent retailers to stock up on its range of toffee and redeem a free gift for themselves.

Mars UK Petcare has launched two Whiskas 12-pack Pouch Multi-Packs with a permanent price-marked pack, exclusive to the independent sector.

Birds Eye is launching an on-pack promotion to 'Be Mortgage Free'.

Galaxy and Maltesers instant hot chocolate drinks have unveiled single serve stick sachets.

A trip to the five-star Exedra Hotel in Rome is up for grabs in Peroni Nastro Azzurro's latest cash and carry promotion across England, Scotland and Wales. The incentive, designed to reward sales activity in store, will reward the highest performing business with a trip for two to the Peroni Terrazza Suite at the hotel.

Diageo is highlighting the association between Guinness and rugby with an investment of more than £6m this autumn. The campaign includes new rugby themed advertising and POS, and there will be two new price-marked packs for the wholesale channel.

Anheuser-Busch is aiming to bring the spirit of Barcelona to the streets of London with the launch of outdoor media for the premium Spanish lager Estrella Damm, which is brewed in Barcelona.

Bavaria UK has hired Yorkshire-based premium beer importer, Fullback, to manage the cash and carry and wholesale division of its business.

XXXX is celebrating its Rugby League sponsorship with a promotion on Century FM and Real Radio that will give listeners the chance to enjoy a game in Aussie fashion: on the back of a branded pick-up truck, with mates and an XXXX at hand

At this morning's trading meeting we talked about motivating our retail customers to promote for profit. Our current trade promotional leaflet contains well over 150 special grocery, confectionery and drinks offers, with our offer price and suggested retail prices. Beyond the free point of sale kit, nowhere do we give a reason for promoting through to consumers. Do our customers see our offers as buying opportunities or selling opportunities? Shouldn't we be providing background information - like market size and trends, TV and media spends. Retailers have so little time to pick up this kind of information in trade magazines.

Have we under-estimated the rise and rise of discounters? I say we ignore them at our peril. When there's a squeeze on the nation's purses and wallets, the queues at Lidl and Aldi will get longer. There is something strangely compelling about the shopping experience they provide with their strange brand names, low prices and amazing non food value.

Danone's recently published yogurts and chilled desserts market review and merchandising guide for convenience stores is a well balanced and valuable aide to independents and it has also helped us re-think our stock range. With Müller also talking up the opportunity in our sector with its 'chill or die' message, we are at last beginning to make progress in this category.

Our confectionery buyer continues to put on weight. His office is always full of samples and if we are nice to him he sometimes shares them out. He's already polished off his Christmas programme (and most of his samples) and says he's well on his way to finalising Easter 2008. Is there any other category that requires so much forward planning? We are still waiting for most of the drinks companies to put initial Christmas proposals on the table.

Our weekly sales figures accurately reflect the presence of bootlegged and contraband stock locally. The imminent increase in minimum age to buy cigarettes legally and the introduction of graphic images on pack next year will result in further loss of sales. Reduced traffic flow is the retailers' biggest headache, affecting the profitable sale of confectionery, soft drinks, newspapers, magazines and the lottery.

Imported beer specialist Pierhead Purchasing has added a Cuban lager, Cubanero Fuerte, to its portfolio.

Whyte & Mackay is marking its sponsorship of the Whyte & Mackay Earls Court Boat Show, with a promotion offering water themed prizes.

Heineken has launched a major campaign to promote the launch of the Heineken DraughtKeg, a five-litre beer system for consumers.

S&N UK has unveiled a new look for Kronenbourg 1664 and Kronenbourg Premier Cru as part of an £18m marketing investment behind the brand this year.