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

Re earlier posts on this thread - I have picked this up drom FYB. I hope I am not repeating other posts

It would appear to be genuine correspondence!

"This is the correspondence I had with Elric last night, he's only confirming what was posted on Moneyam by elrico so I can't see a problem in reposting it here.

Sir

Could you confirm if during your conversations with staff from Stanelco, Howard White told lemminginvestor that Northern Foods were not on their current list. This seems at odds with the paragraph below, which suggests lemminginvestor is still awaiting confirmation regarding the use of Greenseal technology in Northern Foods successful bid.

lemming Investor considers the share price to be at high risk as long as there is no explanation of the role of Northern Foods and their immediate stance re Greenseal, and or whether Ferndale Foods lost their footing and their contract. Clarification of these points would remove one of the the issues holding back the price.

Many thanks

-------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr ****,

Firstly, allow me to apologise for the wait in replying.

Please let me quote Howard White. "Northern Foods is not on our current list, we are working with several ASDA suppliers and will announce the milestones as and when".
As to Ferndale, we announced that we did trials with them. They are no longer major long term suppliers to ASDA it would appear, and one might draw conclusions as to why that particular GREENSEAL project did not proceed".

I hope this clarifies the issue for you.

Kind regards
Elric "

Baza

Hi All,

I hope this clears up the Northern/Ferndale dilema ....

I read it as saying that ASDA wanted Greensealed Starpol 2000 packaging, and Ferndale could not deliver when ASDA wanted them to, so ASDA went to Northern, who will be able to offer this now, not in 6 months time .... maybe I see it wrong, anyone else read anything into the statements below that means anything else ????

Northern Foods wins Asda contract, Ferndale cries foul

By Ahmed ElAmin

http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/

13/09/2005 - Asda's decision to switch to Northern Foods as its primary ready made meal supplier has Ferndale Foods fuming in the sidelines.

While Asda has awarded the ready-made meals contract to Northern Foods, Ferndale has submitted a complaint to the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) claiming that the supermarket chain had not given the company enough warning and that the decision represents an abuse of market power.

The Asda decision also indicates what can happen when a food processor is not able to keep up with the market in the eyes of its clients.(not ready to embrace greenseal and Starpol ????) Asda says it is making the switch because it wants to re-launch its ready meals range this autumn with new recipes and new packaging.(Greensealed Starpol ????)

"We have hand held Ferndale through the whole process, but unfortunately they couldn't deliver so we were forced to go elsewhere," Asda spokesman Dominic Burch told FoodProductionDaily.com today. "Other suppliers were prepared to invest(in greenseal and Starpol ????) to deliver even better quality(what else delivers better quality than Greensealed Starpol ????) and also share our vision." (vision of Greenseal and Starpol ???? environmentally friendly packaging is part of ASDA's company vision on their website)

The huge market power held by the UK's four biggest supermarkets has been an ongoing issue among consumer groups, food processors and competition regulators. The UK's supermarkets are currently engaged in vicious price wars like their counterparts across Europe, putting price pressure on their food suppliers, who are also being squeezed by rising costs for raw material, petrol and packaging.

A survey report by research group TNS found that Morrison had its market share fall to 11.8 per cent from 14.2 per cent over the year to April 2005 and remains in fourth place among UK's "Big Four" chains. The survey found Tescos' share jumped to 29.8 per cent from 27.6 per cent during the same period. Asda market share fell to 16.5 per cent from 16.7 per cent while Sainsburys market share rose to 15.8 per cent compared to 15.4 per cent.

Many claim that this market share puts suppliers at the mercy of the big four and shuts out competition. However an investigation earlier this year by the OFT on the country's Supermarkets Code of Practice concluded that consumers had benefited from lower prices, a greater choice of product lines and no evidence of a reduction in the quality.

However the OFT also recommended that supermarkets be more transparency in their terms of dealing with suppliers when negotiating prices, volumes, discounts, overriders and promotions. About 80 per cent of respondents in an OFT survey last year said that the code had failed to bring about any change in supermarket behaviour toward suppliers.

The Asda contract is worth 40m, Ferndale Foods said in a statement. The company is the supermarket chain's primary ready meal supplier. The company claims it was only given a 12-week notice period to start the delisting of its entire output and that the loss of the contract will put 600 jobs under threat.

Asda spokesman Burch countered that the chain had given Ferndale Foods 18 months notice that it was putting the contract up for bid.

Northern Foods said the contract award, worth 30m, will create 270 new jobs at the company. Northern Foods will be making about 60 different products for Asda across four sites in the UK.

Production will be phased in from the 17 of September with full production in place by the end of October 2005. The company already supplies a range of products to Asda, including chilled savoury pastry, cakes, puddings, biscuits and frozen pizza.

James Logan, Ferndale's managing director claimed in a press release that there was no price tender and at the time Asda had assured the company it had done nothing wrong.

"However, while Asda has eventually agreed to go to mediation some five weeks after the OFT's request, it has still not agreed to do this under the Supermarket Code of Practice nor has it agreed to the OFT's request to suspend simultaneously the delisting notice, without which any mediation will be valueless as the business will be lost before the process starts," he stated.

Logan said Ferndale has already issued notices to staff about redundancies and the closure of its chilled ready meals plant.

"At the moment there appears to be a lack of reasonableness and good faith," Logan stated. "This is the code's first real test, but its regulator appears to be powerless in enforcing the spirit of it on Asda."

Ferndale has been supplying Asda since 1996. It claims it has invested millions of pounds in its production plant so it can offer 90 product lines.

Just over a week ago Ferndale Foods announced a 2.2m extension at its at a factory in Kent.

The extension was built to meet the demand for its pre-packed, ready cooked meals, Ferndale Foods said.

The work included a new cold and chilled store, a new packaging store, plus an extension to the site's storage facility. The company is also building a new warehouse in Harlow, Essex. The 6,440m square distribution centre has ambient, chilled and cold storage facilities and is due for completion this month.

Poetic license from Masterson!

LOOK AT THE FACTS MAN AND STOP MAKING IT UP!

Please let me quote Howard White. "Northern Foods is not on our current list"

Quality and cost of the food is all that will matter to ASDA, whether it's rf sealed or not will make no difference to them.

PM1

Production will be phased in from the 17 of September with full production in place by the end of October 2005.

Don't you think Northern Foods would be on Stanelco's current list by now if phased production was to include Greenseal and Starpol, we're already 3 days into the contract.

I've bought some this morning as I think we'll see a bounce from here of a couple pence.

PM1,

So why did lemming Investor report contrary to what you said.? They even quoted Howard stating that Northern Foods are not involved.

Kong

Seroxat/KKB Hi,

Confusing isn't it .... the article contains so much that pertains to 'Greenseal and Starpol', yet we still don't know whats going on here ....

Maybe Northern are waiting for new Mondini machines, and will use what they currently have until those machines arrive, that would certainly apply to the phrase "Other suppliers were prepared to invest to deliver even better quality"

Cheers,
PM

It doesnt clear anything Paul.

Basically this quote is saying that to date, Stanelco has lost one of the trial companies and Northern have NOT been contracted to use Greenseal YET with ASDA. Now I do hope that Northern do use Stanelco products for sure, but right now, today, it is clear that publically that is not the case.

Bugz Hi,

Clear as mud methinks .... LOL !

Cheers,
PM

Well it's clear to me, Northern came in with a cheap competitive quote and got the contract(without greenseal or starpol!).

Quite Paul! And also, this has all has come up from a post on a BB - harldly 100% credible source! :)

Mind you , how much would have SEO got if Northern Foods adopted Greenseal etc. Someone did quote sometime back that the figures would be somewhat small.

Hmmmmm...

Kong

shamona, as much as it pains me and until it is stated otherwise by asda, seo or northern, i agree with you. that's how i saw it and still do.

Sham, you can't say that either.

There has been NO information about any details of the Northern contract. If they are not using Greenseal then, who are they buying their packaging from? They havent said. We dont know either way mate, so you and Paul shouldn't jump the gun.

Bugz

Northern are not a new company, they'll have suppliers and existing machinery; simply a case of upping production!

Cheapest rules in the food industry, they'll probably hire foreign workers for peanuts to do the work.

I'm sure they do have existing suppliers etc Sham. However you cant rule out, or rule in Greenseal in this situation yet.

Know one knows. For the time being, as I have said and Bosely, at the moment Stanelco has lost a trial supplier. And thats it.

Lets hope this bounce does come soon, I dont like seeing a paper loss of 23 grand!

Howard White's choice of words suggest to me that he was saying "no comment" and I think that means no comment - not no or yes. He could have had an internal telephone list or the local deli sandwich list in his hands as he spoke!

I would understand this because, with the award of the ASDA contract switched from Ferndale, you, me, ASDA, SEO and Uncle Tom Cobbley might guess that for Northern to use Greenseal and Starpol was desireable and achievable.

However, Howard is not at liberty either legally or commercially to say yes that's true, because legally it is price sensitive and cannot be annoounced until the deal is done and commercially it would compromise the inevitable negotiations which would need to take place before Northern and SEO had a deal.

So why don't we all back off and relax and stop frightening the horses with wild speculation either way.

Until then each investor must make up their own minds whether to stay in or get out (or to join or re-join). For me, down through the recent double bottom and the 200dma in short order on high volume does not look pretty, but I can see no fundamental reason why SEO is worth less today than it was yesterday, so I put it down to market sentiment, not a shift in values. Were I trading I'd have been out in the first hour of trading today. Since I'm investing for the medium to long term, I'm in and may add when I fell confident we have reached a bottom which could be anywhere from here down to 13p (ouch!!!).

It's days like today make me wish I was a clever trader - in and out on the turn of the market. But you know 90% of traders lose money, so I'm told. The grass is always greener . . .

sd

PM1

I think that you inserting such things as .(not ready to embrace greenseal and Starpol ????) and "Greenseal and Starpol" and "Other suppliers were prepared to invest(in greenseal and Starpol ????) to deliver even better quality(what else delivers better quality than Greensealed Starpol ????) and also share our vision." (vision of Greenseal and Starpol ???? environmentally friendly packaging is part of ASDA's company vision on their website) is a little over exuberant, misleading and assumptive.

None of us know for sure whether your impllied reasons for Ferndale not getting the contract are correct. If they were, then given that an RNS was issued by Northern Foods about getting the contract from ASDA, then I feel sure that SEO would have issued their own RNS about getting the Northern Foods contract for Greenseal and Biotec trays had they won it.

I value your posts, but please try and resist making assumptions which may persuade less experienced investors from making decisions they may come to regret.

In reply you may say that they ought to Do Their Own Research, but reading bbs is part of the research as well.

The oily one

Good post oily.

strongly agree with oily`s post too