Americans are warming to the all natural products from UK baker Mrs Crimbles.

The Hampshire-based Stiletto Foods has announced it has entered the US market, signing a new deal with Whole Foods Market which will see the delicious Mrs Crimble’s ‘free-from’ products appear at five of the US giant’s 11 regions.

The firm has also negotiated a new listing arrangement for 16 products that will hit the shelves at leading UK retailer Morrisons later this month, while further deals have been agreed upon with Holland & Barrat and Tesco, who will showcase gluten-free chocolate macaroons and gluten free sage & onion stuffing mix respectively. The Morrisons range will include Bakewell slices, double chocolate brownies, apple and ginger cakes, crackers, macaroons, a dumpling mix and cheese bites.

A spokesperson for the Mrs Crimble’s range said the raft of new deals highlighted the popularity of gluten-free products as an alternative to the mainstream fare, with Portugal, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Dubai also enjoying the tasty, healthy treats. With nearly 20 per cent of consumers now buying gluten-free products, Mrs Crimble’s range is seen as not just a dietary option, but a lifestyle choice.

The Mrs Crimble’s brand has seen unprecedented growth in recent times, with shoppers flocking to ‘free-from’ products as a broader range is introduced as an alternative to the standard sugar and fat-laden mainstream offerings. With recent deals also signed with Asda and Sainsbury’s, the group hopes to make advances into the restaurant and cafe industry in addition to leading convenience stores and supermarkets.

UK shoppers are beginning to show signs of feeling the economic pinch.

Leading supermarket chain Asda, returned a second successive quarter of declining profits on underlying sales, prompting fears that this could be the start of a wider trend, as taxes and fuel costs rise. This comes on the back of the emergency budget, and ahead of the VAT increase at the end of the year.

The Walmart-owned UK supermarket said that sales fell by 0.4 per cent in the quarter ending July 31. This followed a previous quarter drop of 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, the first time Asda fell in underlying sales in the past five years.

Chief executive Andy Clarke took some of the responsibility for the returns, saying the group was not fully focused on their customers, which would hopefully change. The lack of attention to the consumer resulted from Asda dealing with its own budgetary constraints according to Clarke, who added that the supermarket was sticking to its everyday low price philosophy that emphasises fewer promotions and better quality products.

Asda removed one third of its multi-buy offers in the past three months, with staple groceries such as milk, eggs, sugar and bananas all returning lower prices in the past few weeks. Asda trailed its supermarket rivals when it came to sales growth, reporting a 2.9 per cent increase in the three months ending August 12. Morrisons was at 6.9 per cent, with Sainsbury’s improving by 5.9 per cent and Tesco 3.9 per cent.

Sainsbury’s has bucked the economic trend away from spending on new technology.

Investment in technology in the retail industry is set to be stagnant in the UK for the foreseeable future, as most high street stores and supermarket chains brace themselves for another economic downturn.

The austerity budget and impending VAT rise has seen widespread speculation that the industry could be confronted with a period of loss, leading to financial outlays for development of existing technology to be capped as most leading companies say that they have no IT overhauls planned. In some cases, computer systems are up to 20 years as old but are kept on as long as they do the job.

According to a report published last week by Martec International, a leading retail sector consultancy specialist, Tesco is the retailer that seems most content with its incumbent IT system. Their latest upgrade was in 2007 while the yearly spend on IT investment is £200 million. Rival Sainsbury’s spends around £220m per year on IT according to the Martec study, which also reported that UK’s leading supermarket chain is planning on updating its store, e-commerce and supply chain systems next year. The in-house system used by staff, installed first in 1995, will be upgraded the following year.

While Frances Riseley, practice manager at Martec, said that many retailers were hesitant to reveal their IT plans for fear of rivals being alerted to their developments, his group’s survey did establish that 19 per cent of the 142 British retailers polled said the reason for not revealing any details was that they were either being finalised or had not been considered.

The 2010 HR Excellence Awards have seen supermarket giant Sainsbury’s awarded the honour of Best HR Team.

The award represents a massive turnaround in fortunes for the HR department at the retail leader, following the successful implementation of the in-house ‘Making Sainsbury’s Great Again’ programme.

The initiative, launched for years ago after the group found its HR team to be mired in administration-heavy paperwork, led to widespread cultural changes and a new emphasis on greater teamwork, which has now been recognised across the HR industry. Judges for the HR excellence awards were particularly impressed by Sainsbury’s dynamic new approach to its HR services which had seen a group-wide unification of approach and understanding. They also highlighted how the vision for HR was able to be effectively incorporated into the group’s overall business plan, which had helped Sainsbury’s to achieve a marked turnaround in profit.

Under the new HR vision, communication was seen as the heart of the group’s philosophy, with staff given greater input and understanding for the overall business model, notably via the creation of the Sainsbury’s HR Manager’s Wheel. This was used to communicate to HR staff the five main skills of any HR manager; being a change agent, a coach and business partner, an HR expert a talent manager, and a relationship manager.

Under the new approach, there were also changes to the staffing processes, which were simplified to result in the creation an £8 billion benefit. Additionally, shared services division, based in Manchester, allowed for a greater emphasis in the area of value added delivery to the HR operation. Ultimately, Sainsbury’s newfound success can be witnessed in the greater team approach, which has seen more revenue and more jobs.

They may be unwelcome to many, but the notorious vuvuzela is selling well in Britain’s third-largest supermarket chain.

Sainsbury’s said yesterday that World Cup memorabilia, in particular the plastic vuvuzela horn, were all showing strong sales in spite of the slow group sales seen over the first quarter of 2010.

In a trading update, Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Justin King called the vuvuzela horn ‘the must have item’ for any true football fan. The group says that it has already sold over 40,000 of the vuvuzelas with English branding at a cost of just £2 each. It is forecasting this number to double by the end of the tournament, with the number potentially becoming greater should England embark on a run to the semi-finals or further.

Anyone who has watched the opening games of the World Cup can attest that the monotone drone of the vuvuzela has become the soundtrack to the tournament, something which has irritated television broadcasters who complain that the noise drowns out the commentary and action. Some players have also used the horns as an excuse for claiming they could not hear the ref’s whistle, although the Greek team has taken to inviting vuvuzela groups to play at training to customize themselves to match day conditions.