With around a month to go before the doors open at Earls Court, the entire vending, bottled and POU cooler industry are looking forward to AVEX featuring the Cooler Show beginning on Tuesday 24 April.

Top UK chefs and restaurants supported Fairtrade Fortnight 2007 by ‘Switching a Dish’ to one that uses Fairtrade ingredients.

Antony Worrall Thompson was one of twenty top chefs who supported the campaign to encourage more restaurants to use Fairtrade ingredients.

California Raisins will be offering a free copy of their new magazine ‘California Raisins and Your Health’ when patients pick up a leaflet in their local GP surgeries. The 28 page magazine offers a guide to living a healthier lifestyle for the whole family and the following is just some of the information you will find in the magazine:

Sir Digby Jones, formerly Director General of the CBI and a champion of British industry, will be the principal speaker at the Annual Luncheon of PAFA the new trade association which brings together the former PIFA (Packaging and Industrial Films Association) and FPA (Flexible Packaging Association).

Britvic Soft Drinks unveils new 12.5cl and 20cl recyclable bottle format for its juice and mixer ranges for on-trade channel, replacing returnable bottles.

Kraft Foods reveals plans to increase its marketing spend and refocus its product portfolio in aim to boost organic sales growth to 3-4% in 2007.

Phoenix Retail Services are the new UK distributors for the popular Trimco range of retail and catering refrigeration products produced in Portugal. They have announced the appointment of Peter Young as Area Sales Manager for the North of England, Wales and the Midlands.

Marco Beverage Systems, has announced the appointment of David Locker to the post of National Accounts Manager in the UK.

David has over five years experience in the roast and ground market, most recently with Mantaya Beverage Systems.

Aimia Foods is keeping the 400-strong studio audience for ITV’s ‘Dancing on Ice’ toasty warm in between filming segments, courtesy of its GALAXY® Instant Hot Chocolate and Nescafé coffee in-cup beverages.

Shaun Rathbone has been appointed operations director of highly successful cashless payment specialist VMC. Shaun now heads up a 15 strong operations team.

Cafédirect’s awareness will be further driven by the recent relaunch of the brand with a new visual identity. The new look includes a new corporate logo and strapline as well as a complete re-design of Cafédirect’s product range and website. Reflecting Cafédirect’s company values and personality the new logo takes the form of a virtuous circle brought together using the ‘C’ and ‘D’ of Cafédirect and carries the strapline ‘Bringing Quality to Life’.

Following the tremendous success of the previous year’s show, the second Dubai staged Dual Automation & Self-Service Show - KioskCom Middle East & Vending Middle East 2007 promised to be a glitteringly successful event. VI went along to meet the exhibitors…

From the 26th to the 28th February, Glasgow’s SECC became home to ScotHot - the largest event for the Scottish foodservice and hospitality industry in 2007.

Over 770 million people live in Europe and between them, they consume 190 billion cups of hot coffee, tea and chocolate-out-of-home - each year. That’s equivalent to more than 6,000 cups every second of every day.

The hot beverage profile is different in each country but overall out-of-home coffee outperforms tea by a factor of 2:1 while hot chocolate is the poor relation accounting for only about 2% of the total; a mystery and a marketing challenge for the excellent creamy hot chocolate mixes available to the vending market.

Deep in the heart of the Andes Mountains in Chinchiná, Colombia, lies one of the largest and most modern coffee factories in the world. Here, the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (FNC) grows, picks, freeze dries and packs its world-famous ethically traded Buendia coffee.