Industry News

New York Times MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM July 1, 2012 Lobbyists from Coca-Cola and other big soda companies have met with mayoral candidates and City Council members. Canvassers hired by the beverage industry are stopping New Yorkers on the street and urging them to sign petitions. Facebook and Twitter pages tell readers to “say no to a #sodaban.” The soft-drink industry is beginning an aggressive campaign to fight proposed restrictions on the sale of large, sugary drinks in New York. Confronting a high-profile attack on its fizzy products, the American soft-drink industry is beginning an aggressive campaign to fight New York City’s proposed restrictions on large sugary drinks. Hoping for a debate about freedom, not fatness, the industry has created a grassroots-style coalition called New Yorkers for Beverage Choices to coordinate its public relations efforts in the city. On Thursday, the group introduced its first radio spot, a one-minute advertisement featuring…

CSD Staff Jul 02, 2012 7-Eleven hands out free Slurpee drinks for its 85th birthday, along with a big summer sweepstakes of offers for customers. 7-Eleven prepares for its birthday on July 11, where participating stores in the U.S. and Canada will give away free 7.11-ounce Slurpee drinks between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Slurpee drinks are a summer tradition for Americans along with amusement parks, big box-office movies and cookouts. The free Slurpee promotion will move Americans to their local 7-Eleven next Wednesday. “7-Eleven Day, or free Slurpee Day, gets bigger and more popular every year,” said Joe DePinto, 7-Eleven president and CEO. “This year, we expect to give away 7 million Slurpee drinks, more than ever before, beating last year’s offer by 2 million.” DePinto said this year also marks the 45th birthday for the iconic Slurpee drink. He said the day is also used to support and…

Jun 29, 2012 CSNews PHILADELPHIA — Years after largely exiting the Center City area of Philadelphia, Wawa has returned with today’s grand opening of a new expanded and redesigned store that is nearly double its former size. Located at the corner of 17th Street and Arch Street, the approximately 5,000-square-foot store focuses on sandwiches, espresso and prepared foods and serves as a model for the convenience store chain’s expansion into Florida, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Believe me, I wish we could find more sites to do what we did at Arch Street,” Wawa CEO Howard Stoeckel told the news outlet, adding that the site’s landlord asked the company to stay and bought out a neighboring location to accommodate the store’s growth. “I wish we could expand more of our stores in Philadelphia.” Wawa closed the existing store for three months and spent half a million dollars to update it to…

NACS Daily News The new stations are designed to change the consumer fueling experience and help station owners increase sales and profits with new features like in-store merchandise ordering at the pump. DALLAS – Cox Petrol launched coxpetrol.com last week to showcase its new brand of independent gasoline and gasoline stations in Texas. Featuring the tag line “Evolving the Fueling Experience,” the new website depicts Cox Petrol’s mission to make the gasoline-buying experience better for both customers and independent gas station owners, according to Michael Cox, vice president of sales for the brand. “We’ve designed the website to be as customer-friendly as our gasoline service stations,” Cox said. “For consumers, buying gasoline is at best a chore that is often aggravated by fuel pumps and premises that are dirty and littered,” he explained. “At Cox, we’re making the gas buying experience pleasurable with an approach that reveals the pride we…

Rebecca Urban The Australian June 29, 2012 METCASH is banking on strong support from institutional investors, after kicking off the first stage of a $375 million equity raising overnight to fund the expansion of the business into the hardware and auto supply sectors. Metcash boss Andrew Reitzer and his management team spent yesterday afternoon meeting with fund managers in a bid to drum up support for an institutional share placement, announced as the company revealed a 60 per cent slide in profit and the acquisition of the Autobarn and Autopro car parts and accessories businesses. But Mr Reitzer denied that the acquisition was designed to address constrained growth in Metcash’s core grocery business, which recorded a 2 per cent rise in wholesale sales to supermarkets last year. He said Automotive Brands Group, owned by Melbourne’s Dumbrell family, would complement the broader Metcash business model, which was to provide branding, wholesale…

Phil Jacob The Daily Telegraph June 28, 2012 Research says nearly 40 per cent of Australians have used a smart phone or iPad to shop and compare prices. TIRED of waiting in line at the supermarket checkout? Soon you might simply be able to walk straight out the door with a trolley-full of groceries. Supermarkets without checkout queues were yesterday heralded by the head of Coles in a move that would radically change the shopping landscape in Australia. Radio tags on grocery items would be read as you leave the shop and the bill paid via smartphone from your credit card. “The smart phone is going to be so much more important to people going forward,” Coles managing director Ian McLeod said at a retail forum in Sydney. “I can envisage stores where people have all their credit details in their phone and are able to pay without physically having…