The former chief executive of Marks & Spencer and now Ocado chairman, Sir Stuart Rose, has reportedly seen his personal wealth rise by GBP 1.5 million following the delivery group’s deal with Morrisons, the Mail on Sunday reports. The retail veteran owns 1.2 million shares in Ocado, 450,000 of which were acquired as a result of his appointment as chairman on March 11.

Posted by Joe Stearn

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Iceland, the first food retailer to launch online shopping nationwide in UK has returned to e-commerce with its online ordering and free delivery service. Iceland's director John Mackie worked with ecommerce partners Portaltech Reply to setup the service for Iceland Foods in seven months.

Posted by Ushma Patel

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Asda has issued a recall of its Smart Priced Corned Beef after tests revealed a low amount of veterinary drug phenylbutazone. The product had already been withdrawn from sale early last month after it was discovered to contain 1 per cent horse DNA. Further tests have now discovered that it was also contaminated with phenylbutazone, also known as bute.

Posted by Ryan Legge

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Sainsbury’s will debut a new line of on-the-go lunch products at the end of this month. The products in the new range, which are expected to go on sale on 29th April, will include Chicken Street Salad, Jamaican Jerk Chicken Wrap, Pad Thai King Prawn and various other food items based on street foods from countries all over the world.

Posted by Ryan Legge

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Kantar World Panel has published its latest grocery market share report. The report covers the 12 weeks leading to 17th March 2013 and reveals that Sainsbury’s achieved a significant increase in its share of the market, while rivals Tesco and Morrisons saw theirs decrease. Sainsbury’s was undisputedly the retailer with the greatest increase among the “big four” of Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s.

Posted by Ryan Legge

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Justin King, the chief executive of Sainsbury’s has criticised Tesco’s Price Promise scheme as inaccurate, threatening to submit a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority. King objected to Tesco comparing prices of own-brand items, asking at Sainsbury's results presentation, “How on earth do you compare non-brand products?

Posted by Ryan Legge

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Target has agreed upon a deal to buy Chefs Catalog and Cooking.com, with the acquisition expected to be finalised within a month. Target announced through their corporate site yesterday that it will acquire the two e-commerce brands with the intention of increasing its sales of both food and kitchenware.

Posted by Ryan Legge

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Supermarket chain Morrisons has announced its intention to begin online retail and delivery of food before the end of 2013. Morrisons is currently the fourth most powerful supermarket chain in the UK. All three of the supermarkets currently ranked above it (Sainsbury’s, Asda and the current leader Tesco) sell and deliver food through their respective websites.

Posted by Ryan Legge

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Coffee shop chain Harris & Hoole, which Tesco revealed a significant stake in earlier this year, plans to open 15 stores in central London by the end of 2013, more than doubling its current number of London outlets. The planned expansion will include standalone high-street stores, along with a number of outlets within Tesco supermarkets.

Posted by Ryan Legge

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Waitrose is adding 400 products to its ‘Essential’ value range in an effort to boost own-label growth, according to The Guardian.

Posted by Kirsty Simmonds

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