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…

Eli Greenblat July 30, 2014 The Age Eager to not fall behind arch rival Coles as it pushes deeper into offering a suite of financial services to shoppers, Woolworths has mapped out its own ambitious plan for its ‘Woolworths Money’ brand by securing new trade marks across a slew of products including deposit taking, personal loans, residential mortgages and even superannuation and retirement funds. Woolworths has registered a new trademark for its ‘Woolworths Money’ livery which stretches the brand over a range of financial goods and services that includes insurance, bank savings and investment accounts, personal loans and home loans. The trademark, lodged with the Australian Trade Marks Office in late June, also opens the way to a possible move into financial planning with one category covering insurance administration, consultancy and information services, as well as pension and retirement and superannuation plans and funds. Importantly, the trade mark centralises the…