CSD Staff Jun 06, 2012 To help keep its stores stocked with fresh products, Wawa’s high-volume distribution center sports a high-bay chilled warehouse serviced by 16 fully-automated mini-load stacker cranes and a warehouse management system from Swisslog, allowing the dairy to move 42,000 crates of liquid products daily with an accuracy rate exceeding 99.9%. The name Wawa is well known throughout the mid-Atlantic states. Its dairy convenience stores are seemingly on every major thoroughfare, and with 400 million customers annually it presents a serious logistics challenge to keep the stores stocked. Nowhere is this challenge more critical than with the warehousing and distribution of its fresh liquid milk products. Few consumer food products require more demanding time and temperature controls from production through warehousing and distribution to their arrival on retailers’ shelves than dairy products. Fresh liquid milk must be distributed within days, and some of Wawa’s milk products are…

Eli Greenblat June 7, 2012 The Age Ross Brown believes retailers are threatening the wine industry. THE former boss of 120-year-old winery Brown Brothers, Ross Brown, has used an industry function to launch a spray against the nation’s leading retailers for flooding their stores with private-label wines that he said were hollow, copycats and masquerading as real brands. Speaking as chairman of Australia’s First Families of Wine, a grouping of 12 iconic family-owned wineries, Mr Brown said liquor outlets were crowding out quality Australian wines with private-label offerings. At the First Families event this week, Mr Brown was reported to have said the retailers – he is believed not to have named Woolworths and Coles – were buying up surplus wine and placing a label on it to suggest to shoppers a wine of higher value. Mr Brown told BusinessDay yesterday that some people thought wine labels invented overnight were…

John Fitzgerald June 7, 2012 The Age The lines between big tobacco and alcohol are beginning to blur. WE HAVE come to recognise the familiar message from alcohol producers for us to drink responsibly. Perhaps it is time we should be asking those who make alcoholic beverages to produce responsibly. But with the lines between big tobacco and the alcohol industry beginning to blur, this may be too much to ask. The tragic death of Sara Milosevic and the suffering of her family should remind us all of the pain of loss. The loss, however, seems even more tragic as death came after drinking a beverage that should, by all accounts, be safe. Unfortunately, of course, this is not the case. The full account of how dangerous these drinks are may take some time to unfold. What does not take time, however, is a demonstration of a sense of responsibility…

7 June 2012 NACSonline A retailer’s willingness to expand his offer is bringing a fresh fruit and vegetables, a butcher and a range of specialty foods to the community. SOUTH EVERETT, Wash. – The DKJ Food Mart remains true to its convenience store roots, but has also increased its in-store offer to bring more healthy food choices to the community. The South Everett Beacon reports that DKJ Food Mart, with federal grant assistance, has expanded into a second store, the A1 Produce Market, with fresh fruit and vegetables, a butcher and a range of specialty foods “that cater to the varied ethnic tastes of the … neighborhood.” DKG owner Surjit Bal was approached by Keri Moore of the Snohomish Health District to participate in the Healthy Foods Initiative pilot program. Moore canvased areas where residents had easy access to convenience stores and fast food outlets but not grocery stores. And…

Phillip Hudson Herald Sun June 08, 2012 SHOPKEEPERS and business owners beware. The quiet guy in the suit waiting in line could be an undercover carbon cop. In fact, it could be the top carbon cop – Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims. With just over three weeks to go until the controversial carbon tax begins, Sims is in the hot seat. It’s his job to make sure consumers don’t get ripped off by businesses wrongly using the carbon tax as an excuse to increase prices. Tony Abbott’s mantra is that this is a toxic tax that will touch every aspect of daily life – when you turn on the lights, use a heater, buy a cup of coffee or get in a taxi. He says it will be a wrecking ball through the economy. Julia Gillard’s response is that Abbott’s claims are exaggerated and overall prices will…

June 7, 2012 AAP Oil company Shell will close a Sydney refinery in September, creating uncertainty for up to 275 employees and at least 100 contractors. The company on Thursday informed staff at the Clyde refinery, in Sydney’s west, that operations will stop from September 30. Staff will be supported in finding other employment, either within the terminal operations at the site, or elsewhere within Shell, the company said. Up to 30 employees had already found other jobs, Shell said. The decision to close down comes almost one year after Shell decided to convert the Clyde refinery into a dedicated fuel import terminal. “The initial decision to close and convert Clyde, taken in July last year, was consistent with Shell’s strategy to focus its refining portfolio on larger assets and to build a profitable downstream business here in Australia,” Shell Australia downstream president Andrew Smith said in a statement. “Since…