Feb 19, 2019 | Katherine Rich Comments
I’m picking a very interesting year ahead for the FMCG sector. There’s no doubt from a suppliers’ point of view that profitability will be the main focus, but issues such as labelling, packaging and obesity will continue to loom large, as they have done for quite a...
Nov 27, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
The management of supermarkets and consumer goods companies has taken on quite a change in recent times – and there’s more to come. After decades of grocers scurrying around filling boxes with shoppers’ orders, and decades more of them carrying plastic bags to the...
Nov 27, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
Workplace Wellness programmes are often thought to be the domain of only large corporates, and beyond the resources of smaller businesses, but this does not need to be the case. When I look around the members of the New Zealand Food & Grocery Council, I often see...
Sep 14, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
In the debate around how to tackle the complex issue of obesity, sugar continues to attract the most attention. For the most part, those railing against it believe taxes to be the single best solution. But with the Government saying it prefers to work with the food...
Aug 10, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
Chief among the benefits that companies get from belonging to the Food and Grocery Council is exclusive access to information, seminars and networking events. These cover anything from export, health & safety, and sales strategies, to retail data and insights,...
Aug 1, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
People often do and say silly things where alcohol is involved. I’m not meaning just those who may consume too much of it, rather those who try to make it as difficult as possible for reasonable New Zealanders who want to supply or purchase beer and wine from a...
Jul 10, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
Now they’re going too far. As if years of using erroneous figures as “evidence” to back calls for taxes on sugar in everyday foods and beverages wasn’t bad enough, anti-food campaigners are now turning to some of the things that bring a little joy to our lives –...
Jun 5, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
Last month I wrote about predictions by some food industry experts on the shape of the food industry in 2050. When some of panelists from our industry were asked at the Food for the Future summit in Singapore what they thought the food world would look like in 30...
May 10, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
The newspaper headline was enough to get nutritionists wondering: “Fat enzyme breakthrough kept mouse thin on pizza and burgers diet”. Those of us with a questionable diet were wishfully thinking that at last here was something that meant we could eat fast foods to...
May 5, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
No stock farms, no animal ingredients in any foods, and definitely no meat section in supermarkets. It doesn’t sound right, but according to some food industry leaders it’s what the food world could look like just 30 years from now. Last month I was at the Food for...
Apr 25, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
As predicted, the food industry year is shaping up to be dominated by what more can be done to reduce obesity. This is no surprise since New Zealand’s obesity rate remains one of the highest in the developed world. It’s a problem everyone should be concerned about. As...
Apr 10, 2018 | Katherine Rich Comments
Being raised in Dunedin, the presence of the Cadbury factory looming large not far away down the hill made sure chocolate played a big part in my youth. Cadbury World was the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory of my schooldays, and I visited it many times with school over...
