In the papers this week 14 – 20 Feb 2009
CSNA warns of 7,000 job losses this year due to shop closures, rumour mill churns once more over potential Dunnes sale, newspapers circulation down
Print25 February 2009
Brands must invest and protect their long-term relationships with consumers.
As oppoesed to discounting for short-term gain, writes Frank Dillon in The Irish Times. Consumer sentiment will be very important when economic recovery happens
Tesco was the next big retailer to get a wrap across the knuckles for bad booze tactics. According to the Herald, the UK grocer was promoting and selling wine close to young consumer products
The CSNA warns of 7,000 job losses due to closures this year, with almost a dozen newsagents and c-stores closing every week, The Irish Times has it. Vincent Jennings urges the Government to step up its action on regulation to protect livelihoods
The rumour mill was churning once more as fresh whispers of Dunnes’ 120 Irish outlets being up for sale hit the papers last weekend. Asda is the current number one suspect for the secret deal, as the Indo explains
The recession has proven fortuitous for Wal Mart; its US sales rose 6% as it attracted more shoppers trying to save money, reports The Irish Times
And in the UK, while rival Tesco posted lacklustre Christmas trading figures, Asda announced its highest ever market share increase. Chief executive Andy Bond explained this success, saying people wanted “real transparent value for money.” No doubt revenue was also boosted by the UK’s second highest performing store in Enniskillen. The FT and Daily Mail take a look
Faced with decreasing revenues, cider-maker Bulmers meanwhile is to cut over 120 jobs at its plant in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. It is currently in discussions with trade union Siptu regarding “streamlining” proposals, as The Irish Times has it
Heneiken and Carlsberg have also both warned of further cost cuts following their joint acquisition of Scottish and Newcastle last year. However, Carlsberg did better by scooping up its Russian and French divisions while Heneiken plumped for its British assets, as the FT explains
Nestle has a positive outlook for 2009 after managing to beat its targets, with underlying sales growth of 8.3% in 2008. While the food group has said it expected the economic downturn to continue to hit consumer demand, it wanted organic growth “at least approaching 5%,” reports The Irish Times
It can’t be easy for the papers to have to tell us their own circulation is down, but unfortunately that’s the case. All Irish-published daily titles and most Sunday newspapers recorded lower circulation in the second half of last year. In fact, only the Sunday Business Post and Sunday World bucked the trend
And while retailers are far from happy with recent wholesale price hikes from Independent News and Media (INM), it looks like shareholders won’t be too happy with the publishing group either. It has announced it won’t be paying a final dividend for 2008. A blow considering the final dividend for 2007 was €60.2million
Earlier in the week, The Irish Times also announced INM was “the major loser of the day” on Dublin’s Iseq; slipping more than 13% to €0.16
Ireland opened its stand this week at BioFach, the world’s largest organic food fair in Nurenburg. Here it was revealed that Ireland’s €417million food and drink trade with Germany could be boosted further with increased organic exports, reports The Irish Examiner
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