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

UK retailers Marks and Spencer and Asda both announced the departure of key members of their executive teams this week. For M&S, finance and operations director Ian Dyson left to jon pub group Punch Taverns, while Asda announced the exit of CMO Darren Blackhurst. And, aside from a raft of quarterly results, there was some M&A activity, with Poundland the subject of a takeover from US private-equity firm Warburg Pincus who described the firm as "an exceptional business". Here is the best of who said what this week.

"Although the timing of an announcement of this sort is never perfect, my background in leisure makes Punch a very exciting opportunity and one I couldn’t ignore" - Marks and Spencer finance director Ian Dyson (pictured) reveals his departure on only the second official day of new chief executive Marc Bolland's stewardship at the retailer.

“With the pending change in CEO, we have had discussions about his future and he is taking some time out before ultimately pursuing his career elsewhere" - Asda CEO Andy Bond announces chief merchandising officer Darren Blackhurst's departure.

"Retailers face an election every day and, at the moment, we're just ahead of our opposition" - Morrisons finance director Richard Pennycook topically highlights the UK grocer's apparent outperformance in the sector.

“Both deals were dumb. The pizza deal was particularly dumb... I just hated to see them give up a significant portion of those businesses to buy Cadbury" - US billionaire investor Warren Buffett has again hit out at the way Kraft Foods bought UK confectioner Cadbury

“Price has become quite a big driver in the category now. But we are a strange fish because we don't want to play that game. We are going to try and stay high" - Richard Hayes, Warburtons’ marketing director talks to just-food about competition in the UK bread sector.

"There will be headwinds, commodities, currencies and lapping a 53-week year to name a few. At the same time, we're creating our own tailwinds" - Sara Lee chairman and CEO Brenda Barnes announces plans for marketing investments in the fourth quarter.

"I'm pretty excited about consumption growth, growth in Europe and growth in the UK turning around. We have really managed our balance sheet well, which gives us the opportunity for other acquisitions" - Hain Celestial CEO Irwin Simon talks about growth in Europe and the UK in 2010.

“In 2010, the US will be a much more nimble organisation, we are confident significant cost savings will be delivered over the next few years" - Delhaize president and CEO Pierre-Olivier Beckers remains upbeat despite a drop in US revenues.

“We are focused on developing various routes to market from hypermarkets, to supermarkets, to discounters, to – obviously – convenience stores" - a spokesperson for X5 Retail Group said the Russian retailer sees a “growing opportunity” in convenience.

"Growth has been more than about just economics: over recent years people have generally become more savvy with their money and have become much more willing to seek out a bargain; hand in hand with that, they have become a little less ‘snobbish’ about where they shop" - Neil Saunders of Verdict Research believes changes in how consumers shop will provide Poundland with opportunity to grow