grocery - food - Grandflame Ltd

Page 4 August 2010
Email: grocery@flame1.com INDUSTRY NEWS
Tel: 01923 272960
KINGSMILL IS ON THE ROAD
COUNTDOWN BEGINS
ONE YEAR TO GO UNTIL GUARANTEEING A CHEQUE
WITH A CARD BECOMES A THING OF THE PAST
Family bread brand Kingsmill’s
Environmental programme continues
to demonstrate its dedication to the
environment and its commitment to
reducing carbon emissions, with the
introduction of 23 ‘Tear Drop’ and two
EcoStream delivery trucks to its fleet.
The trucks’ shape mimics the natural
properties of a liquid teardrop
and significantly reduces fuel consumption
by achieving optimum
aerodynamic efficiency. The streamlined
body shape, linked to Iveco Euro
5 Environmentally enhanced vehicles,
gives both reduction in carbon and
other engine exhaust emission levels.
The 2 EcoStream design vehicles have
light weight bodies and improved
aerodynamics to further compliment
the drive to reduce carbon emissions.
Allied Bakeries CEO, Mark
Fairweather explains, “As a socially
responsible company, we are committed
to reducing our impact on the
environment and specifically looking
for new ways to minimise our carbon
footprint. We have identified deliveries
as an area we can improve on, and the
new eco friendly delivery trucks will
help us to continue our journey to
reduce our carbon emissions.”
EXPRESS SHOP-FITTING:
BENEFITING RETAILERS AND THE COMMUNITY
Express Shop-fitting is a newly
formed business based at Randles
Road, Knowsley Business Park
Merseyside. Express Shop-fitting
provides clients with a full shop-fitting
service, offering an all in one
solution including a design service,
manufacturing and fitting.
Express Shop-fitting has drawn
upon its parent company’s years of
experience as a kitchen, bedroom and
office furniture manufacturer. In
recent years, with the parent company
supplying materials for hotel
and business refurbishment, the
demand for a separate shop-fitting
business was clearly evident.
The business operates from 17,000
square foot business premises, providing
both the showroom area and
manufacturing centre.
The business works closely with
Knowsley MBC and Jobcentre Plus in
providing a centre for the training and
employment of the local area’s unemployed.
The business engages with
local people and offers employment
with full training in the various skills
and functions of the manufacturing
and shop-fitting business. It is through
this investment in training and skills
development that Express Shop-fitting
sees an opportunity not only to grow
its business but also to develop a
highly skilled workforce for the future
growth of the company, whilst also
offering people with low or no skills
the opportunity of sustained employment.
Express Shop-fitting is ready to
offer its quality services to small,
medium and large customers.
Express Shop-fitting
Tel: 0151 548 3781
EXCALIBUR CHILLS SAINSBURY’S
Excalibur has completed a project
to improve the efficiency of refrigeration
packs for Sainsbury’s. During
the project, over 150 refrigeration
systems were modified in 48 stores.
A combination of technologies was
used to allow ‘floating head pressure
operation’. In many cases this
reduces energy consumption by more
than 35%, payback periods of less
than 18 months are often achieved.
TO SLICING EMISSIONS
The new ‘Tear Drop’ trucks will be
introduced at Kingsmill bakeries and
the design of the ‘greener’ trucks will
feature wheat fields and blue skies,
carrying the strap line ‘Kingsmill, on
the road to slicing emissions’.
Kingsmill became the first bread
manufacturer to use the Carbon
Trust’s Carbon Reduction Label in
2009. Working with the Carbon Trust
has enabled Kingsmill to quantify and
communicate its carbon footprint. The
label, displayed on three best-selling
sub-brands, Kingsmill’s Great
Everyday White, Kingsmill Tasty
Wholemeal and Kingsmill 50/50,
communicates Kingsmill’s environmental
commitment to reducing its
carbon footprint with the Carbon
Trust in an effective, responsible and
informative way to customers and
consumers.
Allied Bakeries
www.kingsmillconfessions.com
COTECNA ASIA
LAUNCHES FAST TURN-AROUND ONLINE SERVICE
FOR CONSUMER GOODS INSPECTION AND TESTING
Pioneering inspection and testing
services provider Cotecna has
launched what it predicts will be the
most technically advanced, reliable
and flexible online service for the
inspection and quality control of
consumer goods currently available
in the marketplace, giving businesses
the power to save time and
money. Visit the website:
www.cotecna-inspection.com.
Aimed at importers, distributors
and retailers, and backed up by a
unique worldwide support network
covering 60 nations, Cotecna will
begin to roll out this on-line service for
inspections in Asia that includes a
range of quality control and supervision
services for Consumer Goods.
From initial production to loading
supervision, Cotecna can perform verifications
at every stage of the supply
chain process to make sure that products
meet client expectations and
quality standards. Laboratory tests
also ensure that goods meet international
standards and comply with
customer requirements.
The buyer simply registers on the
site and submits a request for inspection.
An inspection takes on average
from one to two days, during which
time the buyer can follow the progress
of the inspection request online via
the site.
“Unlike other online services that
currently exist, Cotecna’s online
service for inspection and testing is
supported by a worldwide network
able to give buyers throughout the
world local support in their own language
and in all time zones, cutting
down turnaround times and saving
money in the process,” says Philippe
Gonnet, Executive Vice-President,
Asia, “In addition, Cotecna also performs
Factory Audits (FA) and Social
Audits (SA) to ensure that your factory
of choice meets your expectations
and quality requirements.”
Products of Asian origin that are
inspected and tested include; hard-line
(furniture, home furnishings, kitchenware,
DIY, garden tools); food;
soft-line (textiles, garments, shoes,
accessories); electrical; electronics and
toys. Services are coordinated
throughout Asia with the main offices
in China (Hong Kong and mainland),
Korea, India, Singapore, Thailand,
Vietnam and the Philippines.
www.cotecna-inspection.com
On 30th June, the countdown
started to the closure of the UK
Domestic Cheque Guarantee Card
Scheme. This means that after 30th
June 2011 it will no longer be possible
to guarantee a cheque using a
plastic card. To help businesses and
consumers, the Scheme has published
two fact sheets available from
www.ukpayments.org.uk.
Banks and building societies with
customers who have cards carrying
the cheque guarantee function - indicated
by Shakespeare’s hologram or
logo - will be managing its removal in
different ways. Typically cards will be
issued without Shakespeare’s logo on
renewal: this may be before or after
the closure date. This means that
although Shakespeare will still be on
many customers’ cards after 30th June
2011, it will be redundant. In all
instances customers can still pay by
cheque but just cannot use a plastic
card to guarantee it.
Over the next year businesses still
accepting guaranteed cheques are
likely to be contacted by their bank to
make sure that they are aware of the
closure. Whilst a large number of
businesses, big and small, have the
ability to accept guaranteed cheques,
research undertaken in 2008 showed
that only about 350,000 businesses
had accepted one in the previous six
months, and most of those rarely.
The decision to close the Scheme
was taken by the Payments Council in
June 2009 in response to the long-term
decline of guaranteed cheque use. It
followed consultation with Guarantee
users and acceptors, and concluded
that it was in all parties’ interests to
manage the Scheme’s demise in a
coordinated fashion.
The Scheme was first introduced
over forty years ago (in 1969) before
debit cards, when no one left home
without their chequebook, because
cheques were the only cash alternative.
The Guarantee was designed to
give businesses certainty that a
cheque wouldn’t bounce or be
returned unpaid. Times have
changed; the use of debit cards has
grown thirty-fold from 1990, and
now four in ten non-cash payments
are made by debit card compared to
one in one hundred being guaranteed
cheque payments. The use of
guaranteed cheques has been in
rapid decline over the past 20 years.
Their use peaked back in 1990; since
then their numbers have dropped
twelve-fold from 1.1 billion, to 88
million last year - making up only 7%
of cheques written.
Closure of the Scheme is separate
to the Payments Council decision to
set a target date for closing the central
cheque clearing in 2018. As the
Council made clear at the time of its
announcement, the closure of the
clearing will only go ahead if suitable
alternatives to cheques are in
place and being successfully used by
individuals and businesses, so that
there are no circumstances where
people are still obliged to use
cheques.
Alternatives to guaranteed cheques:
• debit cards - 92% of cards
carrying the guarantee are also
debit cards. About a million
businesses accept card payments
and know that they should get
their funds much quicker than if
they accept a cheque.
• cheques - the withdrawal of the
Guarantee does not mean you
can’t pay by cheque or that a
business can’t accept one. Since
2007 cheque funds have been
guaranteed after a cut-off point
which means that a cheque won’t
bounce - providing the recipient
isn’t a knowing party to a fraud -
and it’s safe to hand over goods
and services.
• electronic transfer - paying
someone online or over the
phone. Since the launch of Faster
Payments in 2008 it has been
possible to pay someone almost
instantaneously, 24 hours a day
and seven days a week. Unlike a
cheque, businesses don’t have to
wait several days to get their
money: you can pay anybody
from your window cleaner to
someone with a stall at a craft fair
in this way.
• Cash - cash will always have a
place, about a third of all retail
spending is still in cash.
Of the 1.3 billion cheques written in
2009, only 7% (88 million) were guaranteed.
Four million customers regularly
used guaranteed cheques in 2009, but
often the Guarantee is not an essential
part of the transaction. For instance
customers often put their card details
on the back of a cheque when they are
posting it to a business but, in fact, the
Guarantee can only apply if the customer
is physically handing the cheque
over. Last year 69% of customers did
not write a guaranteed cheque at all.
Use of guaranteed cheques has fallen
by 65% over the past five years. This
sharp decline is the result of many
businesses taking the decision to no
longer accept cheques.
In the research conducted as part of
the Payments Council review of the
Scheme, only a quarter of all businesses,
around 350,000, said that they
had received a guaranteed cheque in
the previous six months.
At the end of 2009 58.6 million
cards (59.9 million at the end of 2008)
carried the Shakespeare logo that provides
the Guarantee and shows the
guaranteed amount. Three value
limits exist: in 2009, 46.1 million cards
had a £100 limit (79% of guarantee
cards); 7.1 million had a £250 limit
(12%) and 5.3 million a £50 limit (9%).
The average value for a personal
cheque is £268, outstripping the guarantee
maximum limit. Even before the
decision to close the Scheme, over a
quarter of all debit cards did not carry
the guarantee functionality.
For further information contact
the UK payments industry press
office on 020 3217 8316 or
press@ukpayments.org.uk
WWW.GROCERYTRADER.CO.UK/NEWS