Graham Ruddick Telegraph UK Asda only one of “big four” supermarkets that is growing as it reports increase in like-for-like sales despite pressure on grocery retailers Asda is winning the opening skirmishes in the supermarket price war after reporting an increase in like-for-like sales for the last quarter. Despite grocery sales growing at the slowest pace for a decade and rivals reporting a sharp dip in sales, Asda said the like-for-like sales grew by 0.5pc in the 10 weeks to the end of June. Asda was the first of the “big four” to commit to lowering prices significantly late in 2013, when it pledged to invest £1bn into cutting prices over the next five years in order to compete with the rising popularity of the discounters Aldi and Lidl. The company, which is owned by the world’s biggest retailer Walmart, now appears to be reaping the benefits of that move.…

Denise Roland 17 Aug 2014 Telegraph UK Morrisons has fired the latest shot in the battle to claw back market share from discounters by extending opening hours at nearly half of its stores. Britain’s fourth biggest supermarket will on Monday extend opening hours to 6am -11pm at 230 of its 490 shops. It hopes the move, which will mean Morrisons stores will be open for 1,600 more hours per week in total, will help capture growing numbers of so-called “dawn and dusk” shoppers. A recent poll by YouGov found that one in five shoppers prefer to visit the supermarket before 9am or after 8pm, either because it is “quieter” at these times, or because of work or family obligations. Dalton Philips, Morrisons’ under-pressure chief executive, said stores “need to be open for longer” to meet the demands of “modern family life, flexible working hours and busy schedules”. The Morrisons boss,…

Lara Sinclair AUGUST 18, 2014 THE AUSTRALIAN YOUNG women’s, teen and tween titles suffered among the biggest print magazine circulation declines in the six months to June as young readers continue to turn to the internet for entertainment. Readers did not respond well to Bauer’s move to merge the staff of Cleo and Dolly in November. Dolly’s print sales plummeted 37.6 per cent from 80,315 in the June half last year to just 50,125, losing leadership of the teen category. Cleo’s sales also tumbled, down 30.1 per cent to 53,221 copies, while Cosmopolitan’s circulation was down 7.9 per cent to 90,520. The bad news was not limited to Bauer’s titles as Pacific ­Magazines’ Girlfriend was also significantly down, its paid circulation falling 28.5 per cent to 50,045. Total Girl’s circulation fell 29.2 per cent to 34,721 and K-Zone’s paid sales fell 22.1 per cent to 31,180. There were “green shoots”,…

AUGUST 11, 2014 AAP LABELS on alcohol products should warn about the harmful effects of drinking, Britain’s All Parliamentary Party Group on Alcohol Misuse says. HEALTH warnings are a prominent feature on tobacco products but consumer information provided on alcohol packaging only extends to volume strength. The group has called on political parties to commit to 10 recommendations which they say will help to minimise alcohol-related harm in the UK – including the introduction of health warnings on alcohol products. The recommendation document states: “Health warnings are a familiar and prominent feature on all tobacco products. Likewise, detailed nutritional labelling is ubiquitous on food products and soft drinks. “Yet consumer information on alcohol products usually extends no further than the volume strength and unit content. “In order to inform consumers about balanced risk, every alcohol label should include an evidence-based health warning as well as describing the product’s nutritional calorific…