PepsiCo partners fertiliser firm Yara to decarbonise crop production in Europe
L-R: David Wilkinson, vice president market supply officer at PepsiCo, Cleofe Masala, director, sustainability and food value chain at Yara, and Jake Rice, general manager of Bilsthorpe, Nottinghamshire based farming business Strawsons Limited
PepsiCo Europe and global fertiliser firm Yara have announced a long-term partnership in Europe aimed at providing farmers with crop nutrition programmes to help decarbonise the food value chain.
As part of the partnership, which spans multiple countries, participating PepsiCo Europe farmers will be equipped with best-in-class crop nutrition products and advice as well as precision farming digital tools.
Companies said this will allow farmers to increase nutrient use efficiency (NUE), boost yields and reduce the carbon footprint of their crops.
Yara will deliver up to 165,000 tons of fertiliser per year to PepsiCo, covering around 25 per cent of their crop fertiliser needs in Europe by 2030. These fertilizers will be mostly Yara Climate Choice fertilisers, which include low-carbon footprint fertilisers produced from either renewable ammonia or low-carbon ammonia via carbon capture and storage, currently under construction in Yara Sluiskil.
The mix will also include Yara’s standard premium nitrate-based mineral fertilisers produced using natural gas, which have a carbon footprint that is around 50 per cent lower than most non-EU fertilisers thanks to the use of catalyst technology.
The aim of the partnership is to upgrade to Yara Climate Choice fertilisers over time as production scales up and technologies mature so that all of the 165,000 p.a. tons are Yara Climate Choice fertilisers by 2030.
“This partnership with Yara aligns with our end-to-end transformation known as PepsiCo Positive (pep+) and will be critical as we transition towards the net-zero food system of the future,” said Archana Jagannathan, chief sustainability officer at PepsiCo Europe.
“Targeting Scope 3 emissions is central to our pep+ agenda, but it can be one of the most challenging areas to directly influence. Providing our farmers with fertilizers that have a lower carbon footprint and supporting them to improve crop nutrition end-to-end will allow us to make a significant step towards our target of achieving net zero by 2040.”
Mónica Andrés Enríquez, executive vice president for Europe at Yara, added: “To grow a nature-positive food future and transform our food system, we need to collaborate across the food value chain. We’re excited to work with first movers like PepsiCo to help make this a reality. Decarbonising food production will be critical to delivering on the Paris Agreement – and farmers will play a key role in helping us get there.”
The partnership, which will help drive the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices, will include approximately 1,000 farms, covering a total of around 128,000 hectares across the European Union and the UK. Efforts will initially focus on potatoes, a key crop for PepsiCo, and then expand to other crops such as oats and corn.
Fertilisers are the biggest opportunity to reduce emissions as fertiliser production and in-field emissions account for half of PepsiCo’s average potato carbon footprint in Europe.
James Hall & Co. Ltd is celebrating apprentices across the business during National Apprenticeship Week 2025.
Under the theme of ‘Skills for Life’, apprentices in a range of departments from IT to marketing, food and drink processing to facilities and maintenance, and butchery to retail are being acknowledged.
Their contribution includes the success of James Hall & Co. Ltd and its associated brands SPAR, Clayton Park Bakery, Fazila Foods, Ann Forshaw’s Alston Dairy, and Graham Eyes High Quality Butchers.
In the last 12 months, several new Apprenticeships have been undertaken by employees at James Hall & Co. Ltd who are seeking to upskill in areas include horticulture, photography, food technology, printing, and recruitment.
The company is also working more closely with universities and colleges on Degree Apprenticeships, and more than half of James Hall & Co. Ltd’s Apprentices are completing qualifications at Level 4 or above.
Wendy Parkinson, Early Careers Lead at James Hall & Co. Ltd and national member of the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network, said, “We are extremely proud of our Apprentices and the significant contribution they make to our business performance.
“We offer continuous career development opportunities to our employees, whether that is young people starting out in their career, members of our workforce who are seeking to progress in their current role, or employees who retrain to go down a new career pathway within the business, such is the range of different careers within a company like James Hall & Co. Ltd.”
Current Apprentices, as well as those who have completed Apprenticeships, have spoken of the positive impact that knowledge and skills development has had on their careers.
James Hall & Co. Ltd honors apprentices across various departments.James Hall & Co. Ltd
The company’s Apprentices will be celebrated with colleagues studying a range of other qualifications at the annual James Hall Learning and Development Awards taking place later this month.
Grace Wood, a Level 2 Horticulture Apprentice, based at James Hall & Co. Ltd’s SPAR Distribution Centre, said, “I am really enjoying my Apprenticeship, and we have a diverse landscape within the depot grounds that continuously require attention to keep our site looking at its best.
“In the role I am in, you get the immediate satisfaction of seeing the improvement work that you have done. I love the opportunities my Apprenticeship is providing me to be creative through planting with different species and colours.”
Lavina Holt, a Level 2 Food & Drinks Process Operator Apprentice, at Ann Forshaw’s Alston Dairy, said, “I love my job and the Apprenticeship has made me feel more confident when carrying out my role. It has been useful understanding food hygiene and health and safety in greater detail, and a recent GMP audit which I shadowed was particularly interesting.
“I have had a mixed career, and I was nervous about taking up the Apprenticeship believing I was too old for learning. However, I have found the experience to be the complete opposite. I feel it has set me up well in a position I am happy in, with the potential for career progression.”
Steven Dennison, a former Team Leader Level 3 Apprentice, who is Assistant Store Manager at SPAR Wolsingham, said, “I have nothing but praise for Apprenticeships and the two that I have completed. They have supported my career progression and cemented my position in retail.
“I love retail because of its unpredictability with no two days the same. I began on a contract of 16 hours per week, before moving to a 30-hour contract at SPAR Lanchester. With the role I am in now in Wolsingham, there is the added challenge of the forecourt, deli, and butchers, and I will do a further Apprenticeship in the future.”
James Hall & Co. Ltd is a fifth-generation family business which serves a network of independent SPAR retailers and company-owned SPAR stores across Northern England six days a week from its base at Bowland View in Preston.
The Coca-Cola Company on Tuesday announced robust fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 results, demonstrating the effectiveness of its “all-weather strategy” amidst a dynamic global landscape.
The beverage giant reported a 6 per cent increase in net revenues for the fourth quarter, reaching $11.5 billion (£9.24bn), while organic revenues surged by an impressive 14 per cent. For the full year, net revenues grew 3 per cent to $47.1bn, with organic revenue up 12 per cent.
“Our all-weather strategy is working, and we continue to demonstrate our ability to lead through dynamic external environments,” said James Quincey, chairman and chief executive. “Our global scale, coupled with local-market expertise and the unwavering dedication of our people and our system, uniquely position us to capture the vast opportunities ahead.”
Fourth-quarter organic revenue saw a 14 per cent jump, fueled by a 9 per cent rise in price/mix and a 5 per cent increase in concentrate sales. Full-year organic revenue grew 12 per cent, driven by an 11 per cent increase in price/mix and a 2 per cent rise in concentrate sales.
Fourth-quarter operating margin reached 23.5 per cent, compared to 21.0 per cent in the prior year. Full-year operating margin was 21.2 per cent versus 24.7 per cent in the prior year, impacted by items including a $3.1 billion charge related to the fairlife acquisition. Comparable operating margin expanded for both the quarter and the full year, driven by strong organic revenue growth.
Fourth-quarter earnings per share (EPS) increased 12 per cent to $0.51, with comparable EPS also up 12 per cent to $0.55. Full-year EPS declined slightly to $2.46, while comparable EPS grew 7 per cent to $2.88. Currency headwinds impacted both EPS and comparable EPS performance, the company said.
Coca-Cola added that it gained value share in total non-alcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) beverages for both the quarter and the full year.
Global unit case volume grew 2 per cent in the fourth quarter, and 1 per cent for the full year. Sparkling soft drinks grew 2 per cent for both the quarter and the full year. Trademark Coca-Cola also saw 2 per cent growth in both periods.
Juice, value-added dairy and plant-based beverages declined 1 per cent for the quarter and were even for the full year. Water, sports, coffee and tea grew 2 per cent for the quarter and declined 1 per cent for the full year.
The company attributed the decline in coffee, 1 per cent for the quarter and 3 per cent for the full year, to the performance of Costa coffee in the UK.
Looking ahead to 2025, Coca-Cola anticipates organic revenue growth of 5 to 6 per cent and comparable EPS growth of 2 to 3 per cent. However, the company expects a 3 to 4 per cent currency headwind for comparable net revenues and 6 to 7 per cent for comparable EPS.
Dutch brewer Heineken on Wednesday reported a slight dip in sales for last year, mainly due to currency fluctuations, although overall beer volumes increased.
The world's second biggest brewer after AB InBev said revenue in 2024 came in at €36 billion (£30bn), compared to the €36.4bn it made the year before.
Beer volume overall grew by 1.6 per cent. In 2023, the brewer reported a 4.7 per cent decline in overall beer volume.
"Our beer volume expanded in all four regions, across both developed and emerging markets," said CEO Dolf van den Brink.
Looking ahead, the company said it expected to post "continued volume and revenue growth" despite ongoing economic challenges.
These included "weak consumer sentiment in Europe, volatility, inflationary pressures and currency devaluations across developing markets, and broader geopolitical fluctuations," the firm said.
Net profits were down sharply, at €978 million, compared to the €2.3bn posted in the previous year.
However, the company explained this was due to a one-off impairment from an investment in China Resources Beer, whose share price tanked on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
This write-down already hit the half-year results. "It's old news," said Van den Brink, describing it as a "technical adjustment."
The firm forecast operating profit before exceptional items and amortisation to be in the range of between four and eight percent in 2025.
"All in all, we see good momentum," said the CEO.
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Retailers are set to face a "perfect storm of additional costs".
Retailers are set to face a "perfect storm of additional costs" as 300,000 jobs will go by 2028 due to the implication of recent budget, retailers have warned Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Under a new body Retail Jobs Alliance (RJA), seven of Britain’s biggest retail chains have united to Reeves that her tax hikes will lead to even more devastating High Street closures and job losses.
According to the RJA’s analysis, at least one in ten retail workers could leave the sector before 2028, amounting to 300,000 staff.
The retailers are calling for shops to be protected from higher business rates, which are commercial property taxes, saying that this change would provide much-needed relief for at-risk stores, enabling them to reinvest in their businesses, retain staff, and grow their footprint on the High Street.
Labour has promised to ‘level the playing field between the High Street and online giants’ by replacing the levy, which is paid on the rateable value of a commercial property.
But under their plans, premises with rateable values of above £500,000 would pay more.
It has depicted this as targeting warehouses used by online shopping giants, but retailers say it would also hit over 4,000 bricks-and-mortar shops.
In the meantime, smaller retailers will pay thousands of pounds more because of a reduction in Covid-era relief from April.
As well as hitting shops with higher rates, the Chancellor announced a £25billion increase in national insurance and an inflation-busting hike in the minimum wage.
Helen Dickinson, boss of the British Retail Consortium, warned that with Reeves’ Budget adding over £7billion to their bills in 2025, retailers face "difficult decisions about future investment".
Confederation of British Industry chief executive Rain Newton-Smith warned businesses are "seriously flagging under the fiscal burden it had to shoulder at the Budget". She is calling for "decisive action’ that must include ‘fixing our punishing business rates system – fast".
RJA, which includes Tesco, Marks & Spencer and B&Q-owner Kingfisher, warned that retailers are facing “a perfect storm” of additional costs from this April.
This comes as M&S chief criticised the government, saying “retail is being raided like a piggy bank and it’s unacceptable”.
“The blunt truth is… the budget means UK retail will get smaller,” M&S chief executive Stuart Machin wrote in The Sunday Times, adding that while Reeves’ long-term growth ambitions are welcome “action [needs to be] taken to encourage growth today”.
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New Co-op report reveals in disparity in apprentices
Small businesses are "18 times less likely" to offer an apprenticeship scheme as compared to large businesses, a recent report has claimed, adding that some small businesses are not taking proactive steps to recruit apprentices from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Co-op in a report released on Monday (10) points out how more than a third (38 per cent) of school leavers face a lack of apprenticeship opportunities in their local area.
Co-op finds that two in three (68 per cent) school leavers agree that apprenticeships are more important now than in previous years, with almost half (48 per cent) seeing an apprenticeship as the most beneficial way of entering the world of work.
However, despite those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds being more likely to apply for an apprenticeship (73 per cent v 66 per cent), many are facing barriers to accessing apprenticeships.
Co-op’s research also included a survey of business leaders, which found that seven in ten agree that a socioeconomic gap exists when it comes to hiring apprentices. It also finds that small businesses are 18 times less likely to offer an apprenticeship scheme compared to large businesses.
Amongst those that do, one in five small businesses are not taking proactive steps to recruit apprentices from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
The top reasons for this lack of proactive recruitment include: a lack of time and resources (38 per cent), uncertainty about how to access diverse talent pools (33 per cent), insufficient funding to support apprenticeship programmes (29 per cent), and concerns over increased training costs (14 per cent).
Furthermore, businesses in less advantaged areas lack higher level apprenticeship schemes, with only a quarter (26 per cent) of business leaders in these areas offering level six or seven apprenticeships, states the report.
Claire Costello, Co-op’s Chief People and Inclusion Officer, says, “The research paints a picture of the real and widespread relationship between an individual’s socioeconomic background and their unequal access to apprenticeship opportunities post-school.
"There has never been a more important time for the Government and UK businesses to stand up to reality and do more to ensure access to apprenticeships is fair and equitable for all young people.
"Someone’s background should not limit their career potential which is why we’re calling on an amendment to the IfATE Bill - to level the playing field so everyone can have a fair shot at reaching their full potential.”
The research comes as Co-op has written to the Education Secretary calling on the Government to give Skills England a statutory duty to improve social mobility across the country.