Frozen Pizza Merger May Take Too Big A Slice of UK Market

The competition watchdog is sniffing around frozen pizzas after a deal that will hand a German producer a 43 per cent share of the British market.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is investigating the purchase by Dr Oetker of Schwan’s pizza business in December. It has been prompted by concerns that the deal would increase the price of a product that has become a recession staple for consumers.

Retailers fear that Dr Oetker acquiring the Chicago Town brand will reduce the scope for running promotional discounts, while rival food producers are concerned that the sale will give Dr Oetker, which is Europe’s biggest pizza maker, a dominant position. Schwan, which was the No 2 frozen pizza maker in Britain, sold much of its European business to concentrate on its North American operations.

Its factory in Leyland, Lancashire, will be taken on by Dr Oetker, which has expanded its presence in Britain rapidly. In 2005 it bought Birds Eye’s frozen pizza business and quickly folded the Gino Ginelli and Igloo brands into its Ristorante brands. Competitors have argued that this had reduced consumer choice.

The family-owned company, which also makes Onken yoghurt, has already started using the Dr Oetker logo on Chicago Town packaging, despite an undertaking given to the OFT that it would keep the companies separate during the investigation.

The combined Dr Oetker and Schwans business will have a market share of 43 per cent — above the 40 per cent threshold usually taken as a dominant position. The combined company would have a 35 per cent share of the branded frozen pizza market, according to figures from AC Nielsen for the 12 weeks to February 21, overtaking Northern Foods, which makes Goodfellas pizzas.

The frozen pizza market grew 7 per cent last year as consumers reverted to frozen foods during the recession — after years of declining sales. The market is worth £375 million, but is highly promotional.About 48 per cent of frozen pizzas were sold on promotion, figures for the four months to January 31 show — a rise of four percentage points on last year, as consumers and retailers focus on cheaper products. The increase in promotional activity was driven by Dr Oetker. Although it has only about one eighth of the market without Schwan, it increased the proportion of pizzas sold on promotion from 46 per cent to 74 per cent.

Retailers fear that the enlarged Dr Oetker will be able to use its dominant position to scale back promotional activity, forcing them to reduce margins or raise retail prices.

A spokesman for the company said: “Dr Oetker UK is aware of the investigation, which is only to be expected on a transaction of this size. We are co-operating with all parties concerned.”

Frozen food had suffered from declining sales as chilled foods and ready-meals became more popular. Unilever sold Birds Eye in 2006 to private equity, while the company that produces Findus products in Britain went into administration this year.

However, food inflation and customers trading down to cheaper and more convenient foods during the recession have boosted frozen food sales. Total sales rose 6.7 per cent last year, with a 0.8 per cent increase in volumes.


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How Long till Pizza Hut Opens in North Korea?

For millions of undernourished North Koreans, the notion of eating at a restaurant belongs strictly to the world of fantasy. And so there is only the grimmest humour in the news that, for the country's ruling elite, Pyongyang's dining options just got a little more impressive: the country now has its first-ever pizzeria.

An obsession with pizza stretching back at least 10 years prompted the isolated nation's dictator, Kim Jong-il, to authorise North Korea's first Italian restaurant, which opened in December, according to a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan. "General Kim Jong-il said that the people should also be allowed access to the world's famous dishes," the restaurant's manager, Kim Sang-Soon, was quoted as saying in Choson Sinbo, a Tokyo-based newspaper seen as a mouthpiece for the regime.

Those dining at the restaurant are reportedly treated to pizza and pasta made with wheat flour, butter and cheese flown in from Italy. They are also presumably reaping the benefits of a years-long effort by Kim Jong-il to bring the perfect pizza to his famine-plagued totalitarian state.

In the late 1990s, he summoned a team of Italian pizza chefs to Pyongyang to instruct army officers. One of the chefs, Ermanno Furlanis, later recounted how the Italians underwent x-rays, brain scans and urine and blood sampling on arrival, before being sequestered in a marble palace. One of the officers Furlanis was training asked him to specify the precise distance at which olives should be spaced on a pizza, he recalled.

Kim seems to have taken a personal interest: while the pizza-making sessions were under way, on a ship anchored offshore, he was apparently witnessed arriving to inspect his officers' progress. "I am not in the position to say whether it really was him," Furlanis later said. "But our chef, who had no reason to fib, was, for the space of several minutes, utterly speechless. He said he felt as if he had seen God, and I still envy him this experience."

The training seems not to have met Kim's expectations. According to Choson Sinbo, subsequent efforts to reproduce Italian pizza in North Korea were a process of "repeated trial and error", and last year the dictator sent chefs to Naples and Rome to learn more. Finally satisifed, he authorised the restaurant.

North Korea, one of the world's poorest countries, was hit by devastating famine in the mid-1990s, with up to 2m people dying, primarily from pneumonia, tuberculosis and diarrhoea.

But Kim's passion for fine food is legendary: he is said to be a connoisseur of cognac, French wine, shark-fin soup and sushi. One of his former chefs, writing under a pseudonym, recalled travelling to Iran and Uzbekistan to fetch caviar, flying to Denmark for bacon and China for melons and grapes. He defected, he wrote, by offering to source sea urchins from Japan, from where he never returned.

Quoting North Korean defectors, the South Korean news website Daily NK said Kim "does not eat much, but enjoys picking at various kinds of food, as if just to taste".


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Domino's Got Talent - Nellie's Crew

Robyn Ireland and Jade Mathews (Nellie's Crew) stopped the traffic in Widnes Road today as motorists and passers by alike paused to watch their amazing dance performance. It was all part of an internal Domino's Pizza Talent competition we are running for our staff as part of our sponsorship of Britain's Got Talent 2009.

Our expert pizza makers Robyn & Jade certainly showed that Domino's Pizza has got talent. So if you can't wait for the best talent show in Britain to return to your screens, here is a taster laid on by the Domino's Pizza Widnes team.



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Teacher Sells Pizza Ads On Tests Due to Cutbacks

A high school history and economics teacher in eastern Idaho is selling advertising space to a Pocatello pizzeria on his student handouts, tests and worksheets.

High School teacher Jeb Harrison says he wanted to save money and teach kids about advertising.

The school recently cut back on paper allowances for teachers to prevent shortages. Harrison says he approached Molto Caldo Pizzeria about two weeks ago and now he has enough paper to last through the next school year.

Pizzeria owner Dan McIsaac bought about $315 in paper and paid to print advertisements on the pages.

At the bottom of an economics test in Harrison's class, students are now reminded they can buy a 14-inch pizza for $5.




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Domino's Pizza Sued Over Driver Reimbursements

Two former employees of Domino's Pizza have filed a class action lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the District of Minnesota. The lawsuit alleges that Domino's violated state and federal law by failing to reimburse employees for expenses they incurred while delivering pizzas.

Under Minnesota law, employers have to reimburse employees for their travel expenses. According to the lawsuit, Domino's failed to adequately reimburse its drivers, instead paying a 'per delivery' amount which was not sufficient to cover drivers' actual costs.

The lawsuit also involves minimum wage claims. Under both Minnesota law and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, all employees are entitled to be paid the minimum wage "free and clear" of obligations to their employer. The lawsuit alleges that by requiring pizza delivery drivers to pay for their own automobile expenses, Domino's also failed to pay their drivers the minimum wage.

The plaintiffs are being represented by the law firm of Nichols Kaster PLLP. Nichols Kaster has offices in Minneapolis and San Francisco.

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Pizza Delivery Drivers Among Wounded in Ulster Soldier Shootings

Two pizza delivery men are among those seriously injured in the attack on an army barracks in Northern Ireland that left two soldiers dead, police said.

Police at the scene of the shooting at Massereene Barracks Enlarge photo More photos: Crime

Investigating officer Detective Superintendent Derek Williamson said at least two gunmen opened fire indiscriminately, adding: "I have no doubt in my mind this was an attempt at mass murder."

The investigating officer said police were probing whether the gunmen had deliberately targeted the pizza men as well as the soldiers.

He said Dominos Pizza in Antrim had received two separate delivery orders from Massereene Barracks at around 9.20pm on Saturday. The orders were sent out separately and the two delivery men arrived one after the other. It was at this point when gunmen opened fire from a car.

The attack prompted expressions of outrage and dismay from those in the UK and Ireland.

Defence Secretary John Hutton said: "I wish to express my sincere condolences to the families, friends and comrades of the two soldiers who were tragically murdered last night (Saturday) and those who were injured. My thoughts are with them all at this extremely difficult time.

Northern Ireland's First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson said there must not be any retaliation for the attack.

He said: "Can I urge all of those who may be angry within the Unionist community. This is a matter to be left entirely with the police and the authorities to deal with. They are capable of dealing with it and they shall deal with it and we must give them our full support."

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said a "tiny number of people are determined to drag us back to where nobody wants to be", and pledged the police had "all the resources we need to find the people responsible for this".

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said the shootings were wrong, describing them as an attack on the peace process, and urged party members to help the police investigation. He said: "Those responsible have no support, no strategy to achieve a united Ireland... They want to destroy the progress of recent times and to plunge Ireland back into conflict."