24/03/2008 by admin.

A Wrexham businessman has designed an innovative and environmentally-friendly way to deliver food parcels. David Jones, managing director of temperature-control packaging company IcerTech, based on Wrexham’s Industrial Estate, has created the UK’s first all-cardboard insulated mail order box following calls from food producers for environmentally-friendly boxes suitable for posting chilled and frozen products to customers.

Most insulated boxes keep their contents cold by having thick polystyrene or foam liners inside the box, but the new style box uses corrugated cardboard liners and tests prove it is just as good at keeping contents cold.

The packaging industry has been seeking alternatives to polystyrene and foam boxes and liners for years, and IcerTech’s research and development department has become the first to develop an alternative.

IcerTech currently employs 10 people and has a £50,000 turnover, which it expects to double this year thanks to advance orders and growing interest in its cold chain packaging.

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24/03/2008 by admin.

Official figures have revealed a surprise 1% leap in retail sales last month denting hopes of an April cut in interest rates.

Food sales boomed in February as Valentine’s Day and Mothering Sunday saw champagne, wine and chocolates fly off the shelves, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

But the 1% month-on-month hike was far greater than expected by economists and experts suggested the figures would dampen prospects of a reduction in interest rates next month.

The February figures are at odds with recent news from retailers, which have been posting gloomy news amid fears of a sharp consumer spending slowdown.

Next warned last week of a like-for-like sales decline of between 4% and 7% across its high street stores in the first half of this year.The British Retail Consortium also reported a slide in sales growth to 1.5% in February from 2.6% in January.

The ONS said food sales soared 1.6% in February, the largest monthly increase since June 2006. Non-food stores saw sales increase by 0.5%, although sales in shops selling household goods dropped by 4.2%, which was the largest decrease for eight years. Total sales volumes in the three months to the beginning of March were 4.7% higher than the same period last year, while clothing and footwear sales surged by 2.5%.

The rise in internet shopping was also confirmed as the non-store retailing and repair sector – which includes mail order and specialist online retailing – rose by a survey high of 18.6% year-on-year in the three-month period.

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