Nonfoods

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. - The Jersey Fresh Wine & Food Festival that was held the weekend of Aug. 14 at Mercer County Community College here, and partly sponsored by Wegmans Wine & Spirits was a smash success -- despite an unwelcome visit from the remnants of Hurricane Charley.

STAMFORD, Conn. - Daymon Worldwide here, a leading private label sales and marketing firm, has named Barbara Simkins to the newly created post of director of retail services, to enhance the company's involvement in retail marketing, sales, and execution of private label brands directly at the store level.

WASHINGTON - Representatives from the food industry were on hand here late last week to offer their views on how the food pyramid might be improved -- or, at the least, better communicated to consumers -- as the Aug. 27 deadline nears for written comments on the issue.

WILTON, Conn. and WASHINGTON - The Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA), the trade group representing food, beverage, and consumer product companies, on Friday urged its members to use the trade channel definitions created and provided by TDLinx in their efforts to go to market.

STAFF REPORT - Aid from every corner of the food industry has been pouting in to areas of Florida stricken by Hurricane Charley.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. reported a $22.72 million net loss in its fourth quarter yesterday, citing costs that it incurred from closing stores and distribution facilities. The results were better than Wall Street expected.

MONROVIA, Calif. - Trader Joe's, based here, has decided to stop buying grocery bags from Federal Way, Wash.-based Weyerhaeuser, a company that the environmental advocacy group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) calls "the No. 1 destroyer of old-growth forests in North America."

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- It could have been the 50,528,081 pounds of apples sold a year, or the fact that Meijer carries more than 23 varieties. Or it could be because Meijer generally has the freshest produce on the market. Any way you slice it, Meijer is a leader in apple sales and merchandising, and was accordingly given top honors as the 2004 Apple Merchandiser of the Year yesterday by the U.S. apple industry.