Adam Leyland

1 week ago | thegrocer.co.uk | Adam Leyland

The Asda soap opera continues, with news this week that Allan ‘Mad Doc’ Leighton is going Back to the Future again with the appointment of another Asda veteran – legendary trading director Darren Blackhurst – as its new chief commercial officer. To be fair, Leighton has never worked with Blackhurst, who joined Asda only 19 years ago – six years after Leighton’s departure. But it’s another intriguing appointment.

2 weeks ago | thegrocer.co.uk | Adam Leyland

With a ‘clean deck’, low plastic and high growth, Little Dish is reshaping kids’ food for the betterLittle Dish can do no wrong right now. While babyfood pouches are in hot water with the health brigade, this chilled ready meals brand for toddlers is on the right side of the childhood obesity epidemic. And sales are booming.

2 weeks ago | thegrocer.co.uk | Adam Leyland

Full disclosure: this week’s first-ever Health Issue was originally designed to coincide with the British Nutrition Foundation’s annual Healthy Eating Week. That’s been moved to September, where it’s been bizarrely rebranded as ‘Snacktember’, a ‘celebration’ of healthier snacks, apparently. Isn’t snacking part of the problem? Anyhoo, there’s plenty to talk about health-wise. Not all of it good.

3 weeks ago | thegrocer.co.uk | Adam Leyland

It’s good to see some fresh impetus in the gluten-free sector, with the launch of a new bread brand: Oaf. While sourdough sales have soared – with Jason’s capitalising further on the trend via continued development of its brilliant plant-bread variant – gluten-free has been starved of innovation, with pioneering brands like Genius struggling to deliver on their early promise.

4 weeks ago | thegrocer.co.uk | Adam Leyland

Inflation is back with a vengeance. Chancellor Rachel Reeves assumed businesses would simply “have to absorb some of [the NIC increases in her October budget] through [reduced] profit and [lower] wage increases”. But shoppers will be absorbing the extra costs too. The start of the new financial year has brought an immediate uptick in inflation, with prices rising 4.1% last month [Kantar 4 w/e 18 May] to their highest levels since February 2024.