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<title>Parting Shots</title>
<link>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/parting-shots/215/</link>
<guid>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/parting-shots/215/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
WE all make mistakes and perhaps the original idea was really worthwhile, but&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; have you heard anyone from either Progs or Foodies bemoaning the fact&nbsp;&nbsp; that between them they have lost over $100 million by investing in The&nbsp;&nbsp; Warehouse shares. Those parcels of shares have halved in value since they&nbsp;&nbsp; were bought by the warring parties in the hope of grabbing the company. With&nbsp;&nbsp; the price dropping under $4, they are certainly not an attractive share&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; right now and could collapse even further if Woollies decides to open up its Big W discounter here. Current results from the general merchandiser are less than memorable and the decision not to proceed further with food perhaps was the result that both our major players were looking for anyway. Just wondering who is going to pay the piper?INTERESTING that ACC touches most of our lives at some stage and that the&nbsp; Government has started to crack down on the huge losses incurred in this accident compensation scheme. But from an employer’s point of view, the&nbsp; blatant cheating that has been going on for years with ridiculous claims&nbsp; certified by doctors may be costing the system, but it has also been a huge&nbsp; cost to businesses both in time off and levies. We have seen a number of&nbsp; incidences ourselves of people claiming injuries were caused at work when&nbsp; clearly they weren’t – and the levy zoomed up. Let’s stop the cheats. IF any of&nbsp; our industry folk are travelling to the UK in the near future and&nbsp; happen to be staying in London or Manchester, stay at the Holiday Inn. The&nbsp; chain has a new bed warming system available for guests – a human bed&nbsp; warmer (true story). Ladies dressed in all in one sleeper suits are available for a&nbsp; five minute bed warming session before guests go to bed, a bit like having a&nbsp; giant hot water bottle to help people sleep. IT’S all very well for those do-gooders to discourage the use of plastic bags in&nbsp; supermarkets, but spare a thought for the lady shopper who is expected to use the replacement and re-usable cotton or fabric bags. Truth is that they hold too much product and once they are loaded up, the poor old shopper (particularly&nbsp; older women) can’t lift them. Plastic bags are just the perfect size and can only&nbsp; hold a limited amount of product – before the handles tear and rip. HERE’S a&nbsp; thought for supermarkets who want to get on the right side of mums and educationalists – develop a packed lunch programme. According to new research, only about 1% of packed lunches for primary school children come&nbsp; up to expected nutritional standards with crisps and sugary snacks winning the&nbsp; day. How about developing a five-day lunchbox suggestion pamphlet and&nbsp; stocking the promoted products in a small section instead of mums having to&nbsp; shop the store to get the fillers. What to do with the lower decile schools where&nbsp; kids go to school with nothing or a couple of dollars to buy crap, is&nbsp; beyond me. But we can change the mindset of caring parents with a proper&nbsp; programme. AT a NARGON function the other day, the MC suggested he would call NARGON top dog Mike Kennedy, President Kennedy – but Mike quickly&nbsp; poured water on that idea in case someone took a potshot at him. Talking of&nbsp; deaths, I knew this guy who was suicidal. He was really depressed so another&nbsp; friend pushed him under an oncoming steam train. He was chuffed to bits. IT’S a truism, in my opinion, that when newspapers don’t have any decent feature material, they always turn to the retail food industry to tell people how to shop better, save money, avoid a wide range of products, be healthier, not to use big trolleys, don’t go to the supermarket when you’re hungry etc, etc, etc. Well they’re at it again. The Sunday Star Times in mid-January gave a two page spread analysis of an aisle by aisle supermarket visit and what to avoid – a deal&nbsp; that certainly offended a number of brand owners and supermarket&nbsp; operators. Why pick on supermarkets constantly, after all they are the most&nbsp; competitive and price aware retailers in the nation? INTERESTING to see that growing your own veges is a booming business and&nbsp; vegetable seed sales have zoomed by 60% over the past two years. And while there’s profit in it for the supermarkets stocking a small garden section, there&nbsp; are a few others who reckon encouraging people to grow their own and&nbsp; stopping them buying the finished product from your own store is like giving&nbsp; bullets to a potential suicider. But I suppose if we don’t sell the seeds,&nbsp; someone else will get the store traffic.THE ongoing talk of globalisation where the proponents insist there is no alternatives to groups like Wal-Mart and giant multi-national suppliers, there is always going to be a reaction. And there is an idea springing up both here and overseas of the small-mart revolution where communities reap the benefit of&nbsp; going local where small businesses give more to charity, don’t have the labour&nbsp; fluctuations caused by overseas ebbs and flows, provide more social stability&nbsp; and produce more wealth for the community. So bigger isn’t always better. THE Malaysian government has got the right idea – it has told the major chains to stock more local produce to encourage local suppliers. They have decided&nbsp; that the current 9% of Malaysian products instore needs to be lifted to 30% by&nbsp; the end of this year and that the unattractive packaging, putting consumers off,&nbsp; needs to be remedied. WELL, that’s another Christmas behind us and the ads have started appearing again for the privately-owned Christmas clubs. The stories we hear of the lack of value in these “savings” programmes compared with buying straight from a supermarket, are mind blowing. But, there are people around who simply don’t have the dollars at Christmas and it’s those that our two supermarket groups should be making a play for. There is little doubt that the promoters of the&nbsp; private Christmas clubs are making substantial profits both from bulk buying&nbsp; and invested funds. And it probably is a nuisance of a programme in-store, but&nbsp; it is a service that’s worthwhile and worth promoting to lock in shoppers at a&nbsp; cost-effective level. Don’t dismiss the business too quickly. SPARE a thought&nbsp; for the small convenience stores and the service station&nbsp; shops as the anti-smoking lobby swings into gear again. The concept of&nbsp; pushing cigarettes and tobacco out of sight of purchasers will play havoc with&nbsp; he economics of the c-store business where sales of this entirely legal product&nbsp; are the backbone of the store. Let smokers kill themselves if they must –&nbsp; they’ve had enough warnings. ]]></description>
<pubDate>25-02-2010</pubDate>
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<title>It might still be ‘off the wall’ but no longer a maverick</title>
<link>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/it-might-still-be-off-the-wall-but-no-longer/214/</link>
<guid>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/it-might-still-be-off-the-wall-but-no-longer/214/</guid>
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Independent Liquor is no longer a minor player in the premier league of brewers, writes John WintersWHILE THE majority of New Zealand’s food and beverage companies would&nbsp; be regarded as very conventional in the way they conduct their businesses, there are a few considered more “off the wall” and less traditional.An example which springs immediately to mind is 42 Below, but even that company – now a brand – is now more conventional in its operations since becoming part of the Bacardi stable, even if its marketing still continues to set the pace. Another company which fits the same profile is Independent Liquor. It was for&nbsp; long regarded as a maverick in the way it operated and its general marketing&nbsp; strategy when it was under the ownership of the late Michael Erceg.But today under its new owners, the maverick status it once earned is now how it might have been perceived, but now is no longer the case. True, its marketing may still be ‘off the wall’ and the innovation it delivers through its products is anything but conventional, but that’s where any similarity with the past ends. For Independent Liquor has been quietly developing significant market share&nbsp; in the beer category in this country while continuing to grow its important RTD&nbsp; business. For this was the liquor company in Australasia that recognised in its early days&nbsp; that RTDs were an opportunity not to be missed, while the other big local&nbsp; players like Lion Nathan and DB sat on their hands and decided not to get involved. Significant segment Both major brewers have since realised the error of their ways and, like Jim&nbsp; Beam and The Mill, who are also key players, have since launched product into&nbsp; this significant segment of the liquor market. Once regarded as the minor player in the premier league of brewers in this&nbsp; country, this perception is now far from the case. For not only has Independent Liquor continued with further development in the beer category with its own brands in addition to further offshore brands, it&nbsp; is further developing its RTDs in other directions and moving into a totally new&nbsp; non-liquor category aimed principally at the grocery channel. Last April, Julian Davidson, who was the company’s chief finance officer, was&nbsp; promoted to general manager of the New Zealand operations. With many years’ experience in the Australasian brewing industry including a period as&nbsp; managing director of Lion Nathan in New Zealand and a former board member&nbsp; of the New Zealand Food &amp; Grocery Council, he has brought a much-needed&nbsp; stability to the company after the uncertainties caused by Michael Erceg’s&nbsp; tragic death. Admitting that the company has had a chequered history, he jokes about being&nbsp; asked when arriving for a meeting with a South Island customer where&nbsp; he had tethered his horse. But he says today, while the marketing and product development thinking&nbsp; might still be described as unconventional, the way the company operates its&nbsp; business is far closer to the traditional supplier footprint. Tucked away on the outskirts of Papakura, one of Auckland’s southern extremities, Davidson admits that much of the work Independent Liquor does&nbsp; stays very much under the radar. In the beer category ten years ago it had just&nbsp; two of its own brands, New Zealand Lager and Ranfurly ale. In the days before&nbsp; beer went on sale in supermarkets, the company found it tough to get ranging&nbsp; among the independents.Several of the liquor chains were under the ownership of the country’s two&nbsp; brewers and that effectively kept its beer off their shelves. But when beer went into supermarkets, overnight it gave Independent Liquor&nbsp; over 400 new outlets throughout the country. Effectively owning the “budget beer” brand, it was just the break the business needed. Two waysSince then it has developed its beer offering in two ways – through brewing&nbsp; global brands like Carlsberg, Tuborg and Kingfisher. It also used to brew&nbsp; Grolsch, but sold the New Zealand rights to Coca-Cola. And this year it launched Casa, the Mexican beer brand, and Davidson says the beer is tracking&nbsp; well. Some years ago with its own brands, the company introduced Haagen and,&nbsp; through doing so, expanded the budget beer category into a premium segment. For a while it ran with just the one Haagen Lager varietal, but has since extended the Haagen brand into a family of beers. First came Haagen Blonde, a low carb full strength, full flavour lager. This was&nbsp; followed by Haagen Pure, which is brewed in accordance with the Provisional&nbsp; German Beer Law, traditionally containing no additives and no preservatives.Recently, the family grew to four with the launch of Haagen Real Ale in eye-catching red packaging. In terms of packaging, one small change has been&nbsp; made in the Casa label&nbsp; switching it to silver labelling and the brand is reported to be “going quite&nbsp; well”. Independent Liquor has 10% of the packaged beer market in this country and,&nbsp; Davidson says, the company’s aiming to be a significant and competitive&nbsp; player. Where in the past it has been slow in coming forward, when it came to supporting its brands with advertising and promotions, that’s all changing.Carlsberg is now being advertised on TV and Haagan NZ Pure and Casa are&nbsp; appearing on billboards. Upgrading packaging At the same time, the company is upgrading the packaging on all its beer&nbsp; products, which is set to help drive sales even further upwards as Davidson&nbsp; reports that all his beer brands are in growth. “We were the only company growing volume and share in the New Zealand&nbsp; beer market for most of this calendar year,” says Davidson. Some 61% of its beer business goes through grocery and the balance is off&nbsp; premise independents. “The beer portfolio for us is a really important driver going forward,” he&nbsp; continues. As far as the grocery customers are concerned, Davidson admits that Independent Liquor has had to put in some work to help them understand what&nbsp; the company is all about. “So they don’t view us just through the lens of a 10% player in the beer market,” he says. “For, in terms of the volumes we have been achieving this year (2009) we are actually the No 2 player in the beer market. “We have the same corporate responsibilities to observe as the other players&nbsp; in the market place and we have moved to that level of responsibility.” In terms of market shares in this country, it has 10% of the beer market, a&nbsp; whopping 60% of the RTDs market and 13% of the spirits market. Davidson says the company has a significant investment in infrastructure, with&nbsp; 150 people employed on the Papakura site and a further 100 in the field.&nbsp; And the set-up in Australia is similar to New Zealand, with further businesses&nbsp; in the United States and Canada. The company has also significantly grown its exports with some $54 million&nbsp; earnings from sales to Korea, the Philippines, a little into Japan and the rest&nbsp; spread among smaller Asian markets. “I am trying to educate people and let people see Independent Liquor for the&nbsp; role it plays in New Zealand,” continues Davidson. The company’s liquor portfolio takes it into beer, RTDs, spirits, liqueurs and it&nbsp; has a small amount of wine. It is also expanding its Cruiser RTD brand into the&nbsp; cider category as well as into beer. Beer and cider In a family of new labels for Cruiser, not only does it have the Lady Luck sub&nbsp; brand for the double distilled vodka with flavours of Dry Lime and Tonic,&nbsp; Blood Orange and Yumberry, but it has Blonde Lager under the Hummingbird&nbsp; sub-brand and Dolce Cider under Apparella. With the introduction of the Apparella cider brand, Davidson says they are&nbsp; now marketing to the opposite end of the drinker base than they did in the past&nbsp; with this brand aimed at more senior drinkers. “People can see that the RTD category is an imaginative category.” Davidson says they are working with the two supermarket groups now on the&nbsp; cider and the two Cruiser beers. In terms of how it handles the different customer base between its beer brands&nbsp; and the rest of its liquor offering, Independent Liquor has carved off the spirits&nbsp; and liqueur brands under a new umbrella organisation called Momentum&nbsp; Brands. Momentum Brands will handle all sales and marketing, leaving beer and RTDs&nbsp; under the parent company. “We are looking to significantly grow our share of the spirits and liqueurs&nbsp; category. We are looking to bring innovation and competition into the&nbsp; category.” The company is either No 1, 2 or 3 in the sub-categories in spirits, with its&nbsp; Seager gin brand being the second biggest in the country. Its Black Horse brand is the second biggest rum. “Our RTDs are growing quite well and we are looking to consolidate our RTD&nbsp; position. We have launched a lot of power brands and they are all in growth.&nbsp; That has allowed us to carve out a significant liqueur and spirits business.”Brands-building Davidson said Independent Liquor is running a brands-building business, which it has never been into before.“We are going to be really promoting our brands. For example, in addition to&nbsp; starting to advertise beer, we have advertised RTDs for the first time in New&nbsp; Zealand history.” He said within the RTD market they had recognised that a significant amount&nbsp; of profile came from the Woodstock brand, Cody’s and Cruiser so advertising&nbsp; would be based around those three brands. The theme for its first TVC is&nbsp; “Crack a Woody!” “The other thing we are doing is getting Coalface data and we have initiated&nbsp; performance measures for our sales people and are starting to measure&nbsp; execution standards in grocery and the traditional business to drive our&nbsp; execution business to more professional levels.” And now the company has expanded into a completely new product sector –&nbsp; optimal health and energy, driving health and energy brands to the market&nbsp; place. “We are driving new products to the market place and it is totally different from&nbsp; the rest of Independent Liquor’s business,” says Davidson. The plan is to liquify a range of vitamins and health supplements and they&nbsp; have already appeared in the market under the Upshot brand with the slogan&nbsp; ‘Upshot one a day!’. There are three variants – Upshot, Upshot Multi and Upshot Kids. “We have&nbsp; had to get involved in a lot of technology to get the products up to speed.”Davidson’s previous brewing experience not only included being MD of Lion&nbsp; Nathan New Zealand having spent 15 years in various positions there, but he&nbsp; has worked in Australia for Tooheys, he was finance director of Lion Nathan&nbsp; Australia, CFO of Pepsi in Australia and finance director of the Swan Brewery&nbsp; in Perth. ]]></description>
<pubDate>25-02-2010</pubDate>
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<title>Liquor prices set to fall?</title>
<link>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/liquor-prices-set-to-fall/213/</link>
<guid>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/liquor-prices-set-to-fall/213/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
THE PRICE of liquor in Australia may be set for another change. The Australian Treasury is carrying out a review with a response expected next month. It’s been reported that it could put up the price of full-strength beer by 5% and&nbsp; wine by 1%, but would leave the price of spirits unchanged and could see the price of RTDs fall by 8.5%.If the price of RTDs does fall back in Australia it will be good new for Independent Liquor, which is the major supplier of the pre-mixed cocktails to both Australia and New Zealand.]]></description>
<pubDate>25-02-2010</pubDate>
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<title>Kirin climbs to the top</title>
<link>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/kirin-climbs-to-the-top/212/</link>
<guid>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/kirin-climbs-to-the-top/212/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
AFTER A gap of nine years, Kirin Brewery – owner of Lion Nathan – has&nbsp; regained the top spot in the Japanese beer market for 2009 based onvolume sales and market share. The company says it ended the year with a 37.7% market share, but its volumes fell by 0.9%. It overtook Asahi Breweries, whose market share dipped to 37.7% after&nbsp; volumes fell by 2.8%. In third place is Suntory – owner of Frucor Beverages – with a market share of 12.3% The word is that Kirin is interested in acquiring Suntory but unfortunately,&nbsp; talks have broken down. If the two companies did merge, it would put Lion Nathan in the same group as&nbsp; Frucor Beverages. ]]></description>
<pubDate>25-02-2010</pubDate>
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<title>Falling sales in US and Europe hit Pernod</title>
<link>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/falling-sales-in-us-and-europe-hit-pernod/211/</link>
<guid>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/falling-sales-in-us-and-europe-hit-pernod/211/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
WEAKNESSES IN the United States and Europe have had a negative impact on Pernod Ricard, although emerging markets in Asia went some wayto offset&nbsp; the weaknesses. It has reported a 3% fall in like-for-like sales for its fiscal half-year. These sales&nbsp; improved in the second quarter, to a 2% fall against a 4% decline in the first quarter.Spirits brands fared better than wine and Champagne brands, which included Montana and Perrier Jouet, it says. But there has been a good performance in China, says the company, with confirmed dynamism in China and India and the first signs of recovery in South Korea and duty free markets. ]]></description>
<pubDate>25-02-2010</pubDate>
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<title>Hamnett to call it a day</title>
<link>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/hamnett-to-call-it-a-day/210/</link>
<guid>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/hamnett-to-call-it-a-day/210/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
MARTY HAMNETT, who led the integration of Progressive Enterprises with Woolworths Australia when the latter acquired it from Foodland Associated, is to retire.After overseeing the integration, Hamnett returned to Australia to be general&nbsp; manager of supermarket operations. Hamnett says he will retire next June – at the end of the chain’s financial year –&nbsp; to move back to Adelaide to be closer to his grandchildren. He says he has no plans&nbsp; to take up any other position. “In April I’ll pass the 40-year service barrier and I think that’s a pretty good innings,” he says. ]]></description>
<pubDate>25-02-2010</pubDate>
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<title>Twining sets a tea challenge</title>
<link>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/twining-sets-a-tea-challenge/209/</link>
<guid>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/twining-sets-a-tea-challenge/209/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
THERE’S ENGLISH Breakfast Tea and an Irish version, but there’s not a tea blend based on New Zealander’s preferred black tea taste. So during a visit to New Zealand just before Christmas, Stephen Twining, 10th generation of the founder of the Twining’s tea company, launched a competition to find just that.The winner of the competition, which closes this month, will be able to go with a friend to England to visit the Twining’s tea factory in Andover, Hampshire and also visit the original Twining’s tea shop in London’s Strand. “We are challenging New Zealand people to come up with a blend of tea specific to New Zealand,” said Stephen. “There are not a lot of markets where we have developed a tea specific to that market. And yet New Zealand is one of the great tea-drinking nations of the world. “The new blend will then sit alongside English Breakfast Tea and Irish&nbsp; Breakfast Tea. Anyone can enter. We are putting together a judging panel, which is coming together quite nicely.” Among the members of the judging&nbsp; panel will be Bell Tea taster Matt Greenwood and TV personality Paul Henry.The way the blends will be judged is that there will be a shortlist of ten blends from which the judges will be asked to choose a winner. Stephen said Twining’s would take two people to London to meet its blending&nbsp; team, who are expert master blenders. “The expert blenders have to step in. Then we will come back with the first commercial package of it and it will go on sale later in the year. We hope it will&nbsp; capture the imagination of the New Zealand people. “We are very excited about it. We have done a blend for the Australian people,&nbsp; but it’s not quite ‘the Australian blend’.” Admitting that not having a New Zealand blend was a glaring omission, Stephen said the blend would be produced in England and packed in New Zealand. This is one of the only two countries in the world where tea is packed outside England by The Bell Tea and Coffee Company. The other is Japan. He hoped the blend would be on sale by the end of this year. ]]></description>
<pubDate>25-02-2010</pubDate>
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<title>Call for NZ Entries</title>
<link>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/call-for-nz-entries/208/</link>
<guid>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/call-for-nz-entries/208/</guid>
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SIAL France, one of the world's two biggest grocery shows, is scheduled again for October this year and the search in on in New Zealand for innovative&nbsp; products to be put before judges from 29 countries this May.With only a few more weeks to go before the products have to be selected by the New Zealand representatives of SIAL - SupermarketNews - a number&nbsp; of products created over the past two years have been submitted.New Zealand has had an enviable reputation winning many of the&nbsp; product category awards since they were first introduced in 1986. Any companies interested in taking part in this low-cost international&nbsp; promotion with original products that could attract attention from the world's grocery buyers at the show, can contact Peter Mitchell (peterm@redbow.co.nz) or John Winters (john@redbow.co.nz) at this magazine - Auckland 304-0142 - to have their retail product considered for entry.]]></description>
<pubDate>25-02-2010</pubDate>
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<title>Biggest in the UK, says Hughes</title>
<link>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/biggest-in-the-uk-says-hughes/207/</link>
<guid>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/biggest-in-the-uk-says-hughes/207/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[
THE UNITED KINGDOM has the world’s highest proportion of private label&nbsp; penetration in the grocery market, Professor David Hughes told members of the New Zealand Food &amp; Grocery Council at its annual conference in Surfers Paradise in November. Professor Hughes, who was speaking on the theme Marketing Premium&nbsp; Grocery Products in Tough Economic Times, said in 2008, private label represented 48.2% of the grocery market by volume and 52.7% by value. The European average was 45%.&nbsp; But, at the same time, he said premium label products were back in growth in&nbsp; the UK because “people want treats”. He said over the next two years it would continue to be really hard graft in the&nbsp; UK as unemployment levels were still rising. “We are going to continue to see cut prices for the next two years,” he told delegates. In the medium term he said there would be increased volatility in raw material supplies, with risk management skills being at a premium.He said there would be a new era with focus shifting back to national food security with more food sourced locally, much greater emphasis on climate&nbsp; change and green issues going mainstream. Professor Hughes said Marks &amp; Spencer was working on sustainability initiatives in the UK and so, too, was&nbsp; Walmart in the United States. In 2010 the Carbon Trust in the UK would be putting retailers into a league table based upon their carbon footprint performance. But he said “food miles”&nbsp; no longer had the clout that they had had three years ago. ]]></description>
<pubDate>25-02-2010</pubDate>
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<title>Trust takes slice of Hubbard’s</title>
<link>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/trust-takes-slice-of-hubbards/206/</link>
<guid>http://www.supermarketnews.co.nz/news/view/news/trust-takes-slice-of-hubbards/206/</guid>
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HUBBARD FOODS has a new shareholder - the Rotorua Energy Charitable&nbsp;&nbsp; Trust. It is said to have taken a 35.6% stake because the Trust feels itstands&nbsp;&nbsp; out as a local business the matches the Trust’s ethics, and provides a satisfactory&nbsp; commercial return.Dick Hubbard says the investment will help the company achieve ambitious long-term growth goals. The Trust was created out of the corporatisation of the Rotorua Electricity&nbsp; Company.]]></description>
<pubDate>25-02-2010</pubDate>
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