Here on the western coast of France (east of Roscoff), the temperature has climbed to 32 degrees for my holiday week!

Europe has a long way to go if it is to deliver on the hope sparked by recent economic numbers.

Tipperary company Nüdest Food are targeting adults looking for healthy snacks while on the go with their innovative products, writes Trish Dromey.

Quirky marketing and packaging is helping Broderick Brothers grow worldwide, writes Trish Dromey

The beef trade at the factories continues to be a hard battle for farmers to move prices upwards, with only limited success.

Cutting prices of Christmas puddings, turkeys, sprouts, and mince pies helped Tesco pull a better-than-expected performance out of its shopping bag over the holiday period.

The atmosphere in Brussels is funereal. The Christmas lights are up but the pretty Christmas market stalls are all shut tight. The streets are almost empty and even the police sirens of the past week are silent.

Want to know what you’ll be wearing next spring? Fresh from London Fashion Week, Rachel Marie Walsh has the lowdown on the trends we’ll all be embracing in 2016.

Arise Sir John Paul — it’s much ado about pudding.

Cocaine cake a ‘joke in bad taste’

The fire alarm was waved off by managers.

Thousands of Bangladeshi workers demanding justice took to the streets today as the full horror of a clothes factory blaze that killed at least 112 people emerged.

Fire raced through a garment factory that supplies major retailers in the West, killing at least 112 people, many of whom were trapped by the flames because the eight-story building lacked emergency exits, an official said yesterday.

There were no emergency exits at a Bangladesh factory hit by a deadly blaze which killed scores of workers, it emerged today.

Global food buyers are reacting very positively to Origin Green, Bord Bia’s new sustainability development programme for the €8.85bn Irish food and drink export industry.

There was good news on the jobs front yesterday with the announcement of 85 positions across three companies, including 25 jobs at the Jelly Bean Factory, which were announced by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

FLYING to your family holiday destination may have its advantages in terms of speed, but there’s a lot to be said for taking the scenic route by car.

FLYING to your family holiday destination may have its advantages in terms of speed, but there’s a lot to be said for taking the scenic route by car.

Carrefour, Europe’s biggest retailer, laid bare the pain being felt by austerity-hit shoppers, reporting a plunge in demand for discretionary purchases such as clothing and electrical goods and a deteriorating performance at its core French hypermarkets.

Beijing plans to ban people convicted of food safety crimes from investing in and operating related businesses as China’s government steps up measures against such violations.

Food supply-chain jobs will be lost due to supermarket chains acting to bypass the wholesale sector, Retail Excellence Ireland chief executive David Fitzsimons has warned.

Millions of euro in new trade will result from speed-dating style meetings between Irish food and drink firms and global buyers at Bord Bia’s Marketplace 2012 yesterday in the National Convention Centre, Dublin.

Adding value and scale is the big challenge facing the seafood sector, 50 seafood companies heard at a networking seminar yesterday in the Radisson Hotel, Dublin Airport.

CORK-BASED retail lighting company Nualight has acquired Dutch firm Lumoluce for €11 million.

FOR the second time in seven months, E coli O26 contamination has been found in France in frozen minced beef steaks from Ireland.

CONSUMER awareness and innovation hold the key to breaking into the growing convenience food market, according to Bord Bia.

Senior executives at supermarket Sainsbury’s met with government officials in China to discuss opening the group’s first overseas stores for almost a decade, it emerged today.

SALES, marketing, distribution and business support services group DCC has acquired French-based consumer electronics distributor Comtrade for a total of around €21.2m.

Business support services group DCC has bought French electronics distributor Comtrade for €11.4m, subject to clearance from the French competition authorities.

Thousands of garment workers in an area of Bangladesh where clothes are made for foreign companies including Marks & Spencer clashed with police today, amid protests over a new minimum wage.

Police used riot gas to disperse thousands of rampaging Bangladeshi clothing workers protesting over low wages today.

Supermarket giant Tesco reported its worst Christmas in almost 20 years today as it wrestled with difficult markets at home and abroad.

Supermarket giant Tesco is on track to become the world’s second largest retailer within four years, according to research today.

China’s commerce minister took the unusual step of thanking foreign companies on national television today for donating earthquake aid, dismissing accusations spread on Chinese websites that they were doing too little.

Grocery giant Tesco unveiled its biggest ever deal today after agreeing to spend nearly £1bn (€1.25bn) on beefing up its hypermarket presence in South Korea.

China urged its citizens to be “calm” and “rational” as nationalistic protests against French supermarket Carrefour spread today to more cities across the country.

BANKS tend to be big employers. For instance, most of the largest private sector employers in Europe are banks — HSBC Holdings, BNP Paribas, Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse.

Wal-Mart Stores has remained the world's largest retailer, according to a new survey.