Leading UK supermarket chain has launched a multi-million pound overhaul of its in-house range.

The mid-market own-label selection will be rebranded to become Chosen by You, as Asda splashes out around £100 million in the new facelift which is aimed at addressing the ongoing slide in the group’s market share.

Over 3,500 items from food to drink were overhauled in the nine month process, which saw customers involved in more than 200,000 taste test according to Andy Clarke, Asda CEO, speaking at a London conference yesterday. The new range, which previously has recorded annual sales of around£8 billion, will be available in all of the group’s outlets as from today.

According to figures from Kantar Worldwide data, the share of the UK grocery market held by Asda has fallen steadily for the past nine months, while the group’s market share price has slid to just 17.2 per cent over the past three months, significantly trailing its major competitor Tesco, who leads the pack with a 30.8 per cent market share. The own brand range, which includes the Extra Special premium range and the Smart Price value range, makes up around half of Asda’s total sales.

Asda said the rebranding marked a real change for the group, which will now focus on the mid-tier Asda brand Chosen by You. This will see the group highlight what they call their ‘value hat-trick’ of service, quality and price. Careful consultation has been made with the UK public, with some 40,000 customers participating in blind taste tests across the country in recent months, leading to the addition of 500 new products and the modification of 1,000 more that reported room for improvement.

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.

Leading UK retailers including Asda and Tesco are calling for a review of underage sales legislation.

A reform of laws governing the sale of cigarettes, alcohol and a variety of other products has been demanded by British retailers, who claim that existing rules are too complicated.

The group of retailers, which operate more than 250,000 outlets across Britain including independent stores numbering in their thousands, has urged the government to review and streamline the current regulations. Presently, there are 18 separate pieces of documentation that govern sales of items to underage children, which retailers claim are far too complex and should be combined into one, single, over-arching piece of legislation. Retailers are also calling for trade bodies and local regulators to grow stronger partnerships to tackle the problem.

Increasing pressure has been placed on retailers to tackle the problems of underage drinking and knife crime at the point of sale. However, they believe they are being singled out for what is a community issue. They also suggest that the complexity of the regulations, while increasing staff training and vigilance, has done little to protect their employees in the event of prosecution.

Chairman of the CBI’s Consumer Affairs Panel, Geoffrey Budd, said that using retailers as a part of the solution rather than the source of the problem would be far more effective in tackling issues.

On the move shoppers take note; leading UK supermarket giant Tesco is to launch the country’s first drive-thru store.

Aimed squarely at those short on time, the drive through facility will also cater to people who neither want to make the weekly shopping trip into the mall themselves, nor shop online and wait for the delivery.

Instead, the new service will allow customers to pay a flat fee of £2 to be directed to a dedicated store area at a specific time and collect their purchases without ever having to leave the comfort of their vehicle. The first of the stores will be run as a pilot and will debut at Baldock’s Tesco Extra store in Hertfordshire. If all runs smoothly, then Tesco will roll out the initiative nationwide, though as yet no time frame has been put forward.

The Tesco dotcom will oversee the running of the service, and customers will still order their groceries online as they do now using the Tesco internet shopping facility. The only different is that rather than select home delivery, they will instead choose the Click and Collect option. By doing so, they will be provided with a two-hour collection window during which they are able to collect their purchases at any time. All that needs to be done on arrival at the store is head to the reserved area of the carpark and show a staff member the reference details of their online purchase and their goods will be loaded directly into their vehicle.

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.