Industry News

NACS Online May 14 By analyzing the impact of tax and price changes on the cigarette market, policymakers can reduce the sales of illegal tobacco products in Canada. TORONTO – Government efforts to tax cigarettes in Canada can have unintended consequences for tax revenues and the supply of contraband cigarettes, according to a report released last week by the C.D. Howe Institute. In “A Taxing Dilemma: Assessing the Impact of Tax and Price Changes on the Tobacco Market,” Concordia University economists Ian Irvine and William Sims assess the effect of tax policy on tobacco use and, in particular, on prices and consumer choice between illegal and legal cigarettes. The study notes that sales of contraband cigarettes in Canada constitute a sizable component of the tobacco market. This illegal trade is associated with a loss in tax revenue and an array of illicit activities that involve gangs and organized crime. Various…

14 May 2012 CSNews DALLAS — 7-Eleven Inc. will nationally roll out its low-calorie Slurpeethis week. The convenience store chain has been testing the idea regionally, with its Lite Fanta Sugar-Free Mango Slurpee available for sale at many locations. That flavor will become a national staple, as well other lower-calorie flavors. According to USA Today, the mango flavor provides 20 calories per 8-ounce serving, compared to 66 calories in 7-Eleven’s Fanta Wild Cherry Slurpee drink, the c-store chain’s best-selling conventional Slurpee. “We talked to a group who said they would drink Slurpees more often if we take out the sugar and reduce the calories,” Laura Gordon, 7-Eleven’s vice president of brand innovation, told the newspaper. To encourage consumers to try new low-calorie Slurpees, 7-Eleven will offer free 7.11-ounce Slurpees on “SlurpFree Day,” scheduled for May 23. In addition to the low-calorie Slurpee flavors available as of this week, 7-Eleven will…

Malcolm Maiden May 16, 2012 The Age The commission is hoping the latest probe will finally resolve the legality of price-sharing. I WOULDN’T go so far as to say that Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims is tilting at windmills with his new investigation into price information-sharing by the big petrol retailers. He is, however, engaging a collective that has parried similar thrusts before. The group that supplies the price data, Informed Sources, was set up by Alan Cadd in Brisbane in 1987. The internet hadn’t arrived, and Cadd sent people out in cars to collect service station petrol prices that he sold back to the big petrol retail chains. By 1993 the retailers had put information technology systems in place that allowed them to track prices nationally in their own service stations, and Cadd saw the potential. He went to the petrol groups and suggested that he…

Jane Harper Herald Sun May 16, 2012 Coles says its prices are fair. SUPERMARKET giant Coles has defended its private label strategy at a Senate inquiry into the state of Australia’s food processing industry. The Wesfarmers-owned supermarket took the unusual step yesterday of releasing diagrams of its shelf plans to dispute claims that it was promoting private label goods at the expense of branded products. “Shelf ranging decisions are made on the basis of sophisticated customer preference modelling, not on any strategy to replace branded products with private label,” Coles merchandise director John Durkin told the Senate Select Committee.

Isabelle Oderberg, Erin Michael Herald Sun May 16, 2012 SOME of Victoria’s lowest-income earners are being repeatedly terrorised by armed robbers because the convenience stores that employ them do not hire overnight security. Some businesses are hit more than once, traumatising workers who fear for their safety and are reluctant to return to their jobs. Workers at several convenience stores in northern and western suburbs told the Herald Sun they feared that if employers didn’t start private security for graveyard shifts the problem could result in killings. Victoria Police yesterday appealed for public help to solve six armed robberies between April 29 and May 2, at Rockbank, Niddrie, Parkville, Pascoe Vale, Brunswick West and Tullamarine. Detective Sen-Constable Kellie Mervin, from Brimbank Embona Armed Robbery Taskforce, said she believed some stores had been robbed several times, saying a service station in Melrose Drive, Tullamarine had been hit “quite a few times”.…

Darren Gray May 16, 2012 The Age AUSTRALIANS are putting more butter on their bread and in their cooking, and are eating more yoghurt and drinking more milk, according to a national snapshot of the dairy industry. Sales of butter and butter blends rose 9 per cent in the March quarter (compared with the same quarter in 2011), while milk sales (up 5 per cent) and yoghurt sales (up 4 per cent) also rose. The increases for these three items for the full year to the end of March were between 2 and 4 per cent. The sales growth is outlined in Dairy Australia’s latest report on the industry, the Dairy 2012, Situation and Outlook. While the sales growth is a solid base for the industry, the report highlights a number of challenges facing dairy farmers. It forecasts that milk prices paid to Victorian dairy farmers are likely to drop…