MARKET ANALYSIS I'RiCKKl'RYKY I'ROFILKS TALKING SHOP TRADE NEWS IRISH GROCER'S MAGAZINE VOL 13. NO. S. MID MAY 1M7 PRICK GUp m I INIS-mf —10970 3 ppo jig? y Sardines in new colourful packaging,"; r we're launching a xoassxvei nazd-liiimig P*~*— advertising campaign on "EM. and radio sure to make waves in the marketplace. " Consumers will be falling hook line and sinker for these tasty snacks that still don't cost a stack retailing at about 30p. Catch o'n to Rob Roy Sardines now and net yourself some tasty profits. CONVENIENT ANSWER TO PRICE WAR lthough the price war between the multiples has in various multiples find themselves in a tight corner and reality been a continuous fact of life in the grocery the result, in the short to medium term at least, will be A trade since supermarketing began in Ireland, there corporate cannibalisation. are indications that it has intensified this year. For a start Where does this leave Ireland's independent grocers? there have been two cases of what RGDATA's Michael Independents should be concentrating on competing Campbell describes as 'product sabotage' — the bread with the multiples on grounds other than price. war and the milk war. Then last month H. Williams set According to the 'theory of the retail life cycle' developed the ca! amongst the pigeons by opening its Giant cut- by the American academic McNair, the supermarket price store on Dublin's northside. may be approaching middle age as a retail structure, to The pressure is likely to increase. This is because the be replaced by other emerging retail concepts. Whether multiples, for the first time, are competing in a saturated there is any truth in the theory or not, an emphasis on market which has stopped growing. Where do they go convenience is definitely gathering pace among small from here? Ben Dunne will expand into the U.K. For retailers in the U.S.A. Forward-looking independent Don Tidey this is a time for consolidation and fine- grocers would do well to read the two feaiurcs on tuning. But Richard Smyth, fighting to carve out a solid convenience retailing in this issue of Checkout. You ma\ market niche for H. Williams, will keep the price war pick up some profitable ideas! •oiling. For this reason the top managements of the Checkout Publications Ltd., Checkout is published by Checkout News pg 2 Publications Ltd., 22 Crofton Road. 22 Crofton Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. Dun Laoghaire, Xorth Dublin price war. Eugene O'Brien leaves lhc Telephone 808415. Co. Dublin. trade. Food Hall at the Spring Show. And more. Telephone 808415 All articles are the copyright of the The corporate momentum of 7-Eleven pg 6 Publisher and cannot be reprinted without the written permission of Publisher/Managing Editor 7-Eleven, the international evangelists of the the editor. Kevin Kelly convenience store, plan their first Dublin store in September. Editor Rebel with a cause pg 10 Robin Challis A profile of Michael Campbell, national director of RGDATA. the man who speaks — or rather shouts — for the independent grocer. Advertising Manager Sandra O'Callaghan Should food be treated with radiation? pg 12 The irradiation of foodstuffs is becoming a relatively widespread process. But the debate about its safety Senior Advertising Executive intensifies. Patrick E. Kelly Boomtime for Barryspg 18 Barrys of Mallow, one of Ireland's most progressive cash Advertising Executive and carrys, plans to double its size. Paul Nugent Fresh Foods pg 20 Deputy Editor Trading in convenience — when time is Fionnuala Mulcahy money pg 22 Reporters The U.S. convenience industry involves more than just The average net stores — anything from shopping-by-phone, to home circulation as Marianne Kelly 'certified by the Christine Doherty plant care to visiting shoe-shine. Audit Bureau of Circulation for the period July-December 1986 was Premium products take the biscuit pg 28 6,67? copies per issue. Production Manager Although there is little growth in the£80m biscuit CHECKOUT magazine is circulated Eric Dineen market, there is a strong trend towards premium to all relevant manufacturers anj products. distributors, to every cash and carry, every multiple, supermarket, Typesetting The snacking factor pg 32 group head office and wholesaler. Liam Donnelly Super Valu. Spar, M.N.C. Mace. Cake-makers are responding to a tough market by Centra and Londis shops in launching new products, many of them designed for the addition to over 2,500 unaffiliated 'impulse' buyer. independent retailers and the Circulation country's leading off-licence outlets. Jean Swift Trade News pg 38 This statement is inserted in accordance with the requirements laid down by the Audit Bureau of' Primed by Seamus pg 44 Circulations. Subscription £25.00 Mercury Print, Blackrock Intelligence briefing from our undercover grocer. post paid. Checkout Mid May 1987 1 I 11 ray is defined as one joule of energy irradiated lood is eaien in Ireland. j per kilogram. A Joule is die amount There arc a number of bodies in I ol energy required to accelerate an Ireland cither examining or pro- object weighing one kilogram at a moting the use of irradiation. The rate of one metre per second per Nuclear Energy Board, set tip by (he second over a distance of one metre. government in 19715. actively pro- So lliere you have it!) motes the process and has held a The conclusions of this supra- number of seminars. In 1985 Or. national report on irradiation an' Fergus Hill from the Laboratory of now being reviewed by national the Dublin Region Public Analyst governments. For example, in the came out in favour of irradiation. I' K. the Advisory Committee on And the Kinsealy Research Centre, Irradiated and Novel Foods (ACINF) par! of An Foras Talunlais. is also chaired by Sir Arnold Burgen con- satisfied with the safety of irradiation. cluded in 1986 that radiation up to Dr. David O'Beinie from the Centre ten kilogray is acceptable and has feds that in industrialised countries, recommended that there be a general which already have advanced systems clearance of food irradiation. At of distribution, refrigeration and I present, however, irradiation is storage in place, irradiation will be banned in the I'.K. and its safetv is used to increase lood salety rather being hotly disputed by a number ol than extending the shell life of bodies, mostly notably the London horticultural products. Says Food Commission. In Germany also O'Beirne, "people aren't being fair food irradiation is banned. In the to technology. Irradiation is ana- I'.KC. Belgium. France. Italy and the logous to pulling food into a micro- Refrigeration costs are eliminated ,u Netherlands permit its use for one or wave oven, it is exposed to some wholesale and retail levels as well ,iv more food products — potatoes, rigours but it doesn't become radio- in transportation. Irradiation reduces onions, garlic, shallots, strawberries, active. There may be some nutrient peppers and spices. Irradiation of damage but not any more than in wastage of perishable foods. For ;l|i these reasons the promoters of loud wheat, rice, fish, chicken, soft fruits other forms ol lood processing such as irradiation claim it has much (o nllci .ind beans is in use or proposed in canning or free/ing." food maniifaclurecs. distributors ;nnl oilier countries. An EEC directive retailers. harmonising legislation is currently being prepared. A poll on consumer- pparently irradiation of fond is attitudes to a process that has been experi- n Ireland an official line on A mented with for nearly 70 years irradiation has yet to be formul- irradiation i'ouml and as long ago as ! 953 food Iated. The Department of Health intended for the crews of submarines told Checkout that a decision has not widespread hostility. was treated with radiation in the been readied. In the meantime, U.S.A. Now there are approximately there are two companies in Ireland But that is not the view ofihe anti- 115 plants throughout the world — both in the pharmaceutical lobby. In the l.S.A. the National %vhere food and medical equipment industry rather than food — using Coalition to Stop Food Irradiation is are subjected to irradiation and the irradiation, and irradiated food can an increasingly powerful consumer process is now used in some thirty be legally imported provided it is group using increasingly radical countries — to treat food as diverse appropriately labelled. So whether methods of disruption, just last as prawns and frogs legs in tin- people are aware of it or not. month members ol a so-called 'shell-• Netherlands, sausage and meal paste in japan, onions in Thailand and oranges in South Africa. But it is only relatively recently that national and international advisory bodies have started churning out reports. The most heavyweiglu uf these is surely the 1981 report from the Expert Committee on Irradiaiiou — a joint committee which included representatives from llie F.A.O., or Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the I.A.I'..A., International Atomic Energy Agency and W.H.O., the World' Health Organisation. The committee con- cluded that irradiation of food up i<> 10 kilogray presents no hazards or special nutritional or microbiological problem. (A kilogray is one thousand Grays — a measure of the amount of radiation absorbed by an object. ()ne watch' to block sales of irradiated but that at present there has been questions the use of irradiation to kill foods in American grocery stores insufficient research into possible bacteria that causes food spoilage. .swooped into a group of California adverse effects. He raises a number of Using the process to control salmon supermarkets after Hawaiian growers quesions.