for more information about stanelco click on the links.

driver's research page link
http://www.moneyam.com/InvestorsRoom/posts.php?tid=7681#lastread
website link
http://www.stanelco.co.uk/index.htm

Alan,

can you give me a bit of clarification on

'Asda management have announced that produce from UK farms will no longer be collected from individual farms and centrally packaged and distributed, but small groups of 3 or 4 farms will collect themselves to one farm, where they will package and deliver directly to local stores to cut down on road miles.'

in your post above, please? Maybe I missed something. When did ASDA announce it? I dont understand how the farms will package the goods themselves - does this mean we're looking at installations of Greenseal in every 3rd or forth farm? Surely farms are not going to double as packhouses. Sounds a bit like a PM1-ism!

Hi Oblo,
Go to www.asda.co.uk and enter the press centre.
It was announced yesterday, and yes the farm collectives will package it themselves.
Its Asda's press release, not mine.
Alan

Save you the trouble.
reproduced below;

In a bid to cut food miles even further, ASDA announced today (Monday 14th August) a group of farmers will start delivering their produce direct to its stores, rather than sending it via one of its distribution centres hundreds of miles away.

The trial in Cornwall is set to save 6,000 road miles a month but has the potential, if rolled out across the UK, to save a further three million road miles a year.

The latest pilot scheme follows a series of measures introduced by the supermarket to cut its carbon emissions, including switching to bio-diesel and moving more freight by train. ASDA has committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 80,000 tonnes a year by 20071.

Initially three farms will take part in the two month pilot scheme, supplying their local ASDA stores with strawberries, potatoes, cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks and curly kale. All of the produce will be clearly labelled 'Produce of Cornwall'.

Each of the participating farmers will deliver their produce into one farm near Hayle in Cornwall, where the owner, local strawberry grower Neil Hosking, will then pack and transport it onto ASDA stores in Falmouth, St Austell, Bodmin and Plymouth.

At present, all of their produce is collected by lorry and transported to an ASDA depot in Bristol 140 miles away before it is driven back down the motorway to stores in Cornwall and Devon.

Chris Brown, ASDA's head of ethical and sustainable sourcing said: "We are committed to cutting the number of miles our food travels before it reaches our stores.

"Rather than send it up the motorway, our farmers in Cornwall will deliver it direct to their local stores. That way we can ensure our fruit and veg is as fresh as possible, and we'll minimise the impact on the environment."

Eighty ASDA stores across Britain already receive direct deliveries of locally produced strawberries during the British growing season. The scheme was first launched in Kent five years ago but has since been rolled out to Yorkshire, Scotland, West Midlands and the West Country and Cornwall. As a result sales of locally produced strawberries are up 48 per cent this year at ASDA.

This year locally grown plums are also being delivered direct to 22 ASDA stores in the Vale of Evesham and in Kent. The supermarket will also be selling locally produced Kentish cobnuts from the end of August in its stores in the region2.

The next local food range to launch at the supermarket it called 'Locally produced in Sussex'. From 15th September five ASDA stores across the region will start selling more than 60 local food products to their customers.

ENDS

Alan,

Re the biodegradable airbag page.
I looked through all their products on Fri am last and I am certain that this product item was up and running so unless anyone knows different, it has only been down re update since then.

Dave

Biodegradable shopping bags are now placed 2nd in favour of reuseable bags , , in Tesco they are offering customers extra club card points to people who use them.

Sainsburys tried something similar 6 or 7 years ago by giving people 1p for each bag they brought back and reused. They gave it up after 2 or 3 years because the public were just not doing so in sufficient numbers.

(Aldwickk - I spent much of my youth on the Bay Estate - even went to Shippams events a few times!)

Similar but not very similar, Sainsburys scheme seems to have been a lot of hassle all round , Tesco's scheme only needs the bar code swiped, i should imagine.

Bar code swiped and someone monitoring it and counting the actual bags. All takes time = money.
How will they do it on the self service check outs? Agreed not large sums involved so they could be diddled by kids looking for sweets money and consider it a fair price for the green publicity.

In fact, the carrier bag debate is a little odd.
For years we have assumed that people get home, empty the bags and throw them away. I was reading research the other day that suggested almost all carrier bags are recycled in some fashion. Many are used for long term storage in garages, sheds and cellars, some high quality ones are used for transporting swimming kit etc. for kids, or pe kit for school,or even as a cheap pooper scooper by dog owners, but the vast majority are used by people as bin liners, rather than buying them!
This is why the idea of reusing them has failed to work. there is still an issue, that using them as bin liners means they end up in landfill, where they sit around for years, before breaking down into their constituent parts and contaminating the soil.
This is why there is a push to biodegradability.
alan

Thanks Alan.

'strawberries, potatoes, cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks and curly kale'

'At present, all of their produce is collected by lorry and transported to an ASDA depot in Bristol 140 miles away '

Any thoughts on whether this has any bearing on SEO,Greenseal, etc. and the packhouses?

It implies that a certain amount of packaging is being done by ASDA at their stores and that the packaging will be done by farmers in future. I thought salads we being trialled by SEO and due to hit ASDA stores in Sept. (see Alans posts).

How can the farmers package without packaging machinery? Obviously they cant, so is this part of a plan to arm farmers with Mondini/SEO machines and cut out some of the pack house packaging?

Don't forget those strange nuts in Kent!!

Sorry I posted my last post before I'd finished writing it! Have edited it to its finished state, please go back!!!

There are only 4 self service checkouts at my local Tesco at present, imagine there will be bar codes on the bags, next time i am there i will get more details.

[ Your family must have been rich living on the bay estate, LOL. Did you work at Shippams ? would i know you. ]

I worried about this to start with, as I thought Asda may be going back to loose fruit and veg that you pack yourself for the amounts you wish to buy, and that would be one important kind of packaging less. reading Asda's site though, they say that customers do not want to do that, the want pre packed, so the farmers must be packaging the stuff.
the threads are there for a tantalising puzzle. The timing is about right for SEO, the product is right, and my source mentioned by name Yorkshire Fresh produce, whereas the news tells us of "produce of Cornwall".
I'm not jumping to any conclusions because it is equally valid to say that the farmers will be packaging much smaller quantities and may employ people to do it by hand.
very interesting though, to see how Asda are thinking.
Alan

[Grandparents, but they were falling on reduced circumstances. The racehorses went just before the war and the servants went when they moved there in 1948. At least I had a glimpse of how the others lived! I only went to events at Shippams Social Club - stage shows I seem to recall.]

Hurray for someone in Asda with common sense-probably a woman!! When the farmers were struggling with the foot and mouth problems etc. I couldn't understand why they didnt band together and sell direct-before long the farmers markets were set up and they are a great success all over Devon and Cornwall. This must lead on from that with confidence gained from the strong public support now we need them to stop sending our local fish from Newlyn to Billingsgate and on. If you get up very early and go direct to the fish market you can buy but the small customers are not really wanted--high time our fishermen followed the farmers lead and fought back!! great opportunities for SEO as well.

Tonyrelaxes,

I live at Rose green.

Must find out what Shippams know about greenseal.

moneyplus

Yes I agree mp, sell direct cut out the middle man or goat.

Another reason, perhaps why supermarkets are going green, via the local produce way.
Within the last 3 years there have been 3 farmers markets open within 5 miles of our local supermarket, (we have a Morrison's and a Tesco).
We buy our meat at these markets as by cutting out the middle man we can buy it cheaper, and fresher. Although often they only open 1 day per week the customer base has become noticeably bigger.
OK it may make only a slight dent in the profit of said supermarkets, but if they can show they are buying local produce and by cutting waste (greenseal, starpol) reduce their cost and pass some of that back to the customer, they will benefit.
Look how many customers pay inflated prices just because they see the word ORGANIC on a produce. They may buy mainly for the better health, better taste reasoning but I know a few who include the none use of pesticides (for reasons of none pollution of the environment as well as health) as a reason.
You may feel that I have gone a bit too far of track, but all this goes to show that Green is in. The customers know it and so do the Supermarkets.

bprg get there first.