Quote, unquote: just-food's week in words

From Asda's Andy Bond explaining his departure from the UK retailer's hot seat, through the UK organic sector insisting things are looking up, to UK food group Uniq standing by its proposed deal to tackle its pension deficit, many in the industry were on the back foot this week. Here is a flavour of who said what about the top stories in the food sector.

"This is my decision. It's as simple as the fact that I've been as Asda for 16 years, I've been CEO for five years. We've been discussing for some time what our next step was ... we've created what I think is a solution for everyone" - former Asda boss Andy Bond tries to dispel the doubters and insist he was not pushed by parent company Wal-Mart.

"It was his decision. He decided it was time for a change. This is a new role and it is a very, very important role and it speaks to how highly Andy regards the organisation" - Meanwhile, Wal-Mart CFO Tom Schoewe echoes the reasons Bond gave for his departure. 

"We need more clarity and clarification, in particular on the level of requirements. This is something which is unclear to us, not only to us but to many people in the industry" - Danone CFO Pierre-Andre Terisse wants the EU regulations on health claims to be clearer.

"Retailers have been refocusing their ranges and the top retailer has focused very much on its produce area. The largest organic brands are investing. It's a market that is looking to the future with confidence" - Finn Cottle, trading director of The Soil Association, points to green shoots in the UK organic sector.

"We think we have come up with a novel way for the pension fund and the company to almost affect a joint venture, being able to attract the support from shareholders, because they can still see the return on their capital investment - and give us the opportunity to build the scale of the business" - Uniq CEO Geoff Eaton tells just-food that the UK food group's proposed deal on its pension deficit has a number of benefits.

"There is still little evidence that Carrefour's turnaround programme is having a positive impact on the business. Moreover, plans to delay from June to September an investor day where Carrefour had promised to highlight the "fix" to its core hypermarket business, can only add to doubts about the potential execution risks to the programme" - Sanford Bernstein retail analyst Christopher Hogbin is concerned about the progress Carrefour is making in turning around its domestic business.

"The big international retailers are shocked. They are lobbying hard and having hectic parlays with their legal advisors to look for ways to challenge the new guidelines" - a senior manager in one international food retailer tells us that changes to India's rules of foreign investment have left multinationals reeling.

"It's good to see someone out there doing well with a similar, but worse, product" - Hovis marketing director Jon Goldstone points to Kingsmill's Oatilicious for his confidence in Premier Foods plc's new Hovis Hearty Oats.

"2009 was a tough year for Russian consumers and the economy as a whole.  X5's response was fast and effective. We won customers by making sure we had the right products at the most attractive prices" - X5 Retail Group boss Lev Khasis hailed the company's industry-beating like-for-likes in 2009.

More to come...