Trading Partners

Loblaw Cos., Ltd. has made a commitment to source all seafood sold in its stores from sustainable sources by the end of 2013. The commitment, known as the Loblaw Sustainable Seafood Policy Initiative, includes all canned, frozen, fresh, wild and farmed seafood products, in all categories.

The Nielsen Company tracks health and wellness claims through its LabelTrends service into three tiers based on annual growth rates.

Pan-Oston is expanding its manufacturing plant to accommodate growth in self-checkout and technology products.

Supermarket industry sales increased 5.2 percent in 2008, and identical-store sales rose 4.5 percent, but these gains were offset by the 5.7 percent food-at-home inflation rate last year, according to “2009 Food Retailing Industry Speaks: Annual State of the Industry Review,” released late last week by the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). Adjusted for inflation, sales declined 0.5 percent and identical-store sales fell 1.2 percent.

American consumers are changing their food shopping behavior and focusing on price and value at the supermarket, according to the recently released Food Marketing Institute (FMI) 2009 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report.

A new white paper revealing previously unpublished strategies for succeeding at consumer centricity was released this week by Toronto-based retail advanced analytics firm Precima. The paper, “Winning at Consumer Centricity: 10 Tips for Retailers and Manufacturers” is available now for a free download at precima.com/10tips.

Roche Bros. Supermarkets, Inc., an 18-store regional grocer based in Wellesley Hills, Mass., has plans to replace its legacy pricing and store back-office systems with a centralized, rules-based pricing and inventory management solution.

The alcoholic beverage category may suffer an economic hangover, according to new research released yesterday by the Nielsen Company at the Nielsen's Consumer 360 Conference.