Olive oil, long associated with the sun-drenched landscapes of southern Europe, is beginning to develop roots much further north. A small but growing number of companies in the UK are now cultivating olives with the ambition of producing high-quality extra virgin olive oil, marking a notable shift in European food production.

In parts of Essex, Lincolnshire and Cornwall, olive groves are being planted in carefully chosen microclimates where relatively dry conditions, higher light levels and milder coastal influences reduce the risk of frost. Warmer summers and longer growing seasons have helped make this possible. While yields remain modest, several growers have already pressed their first batches of oil, with some achieving the chemical and sensory standards required for extra virgin classification.

The challenges are considerable. Olive trees demand a delicate balance of heat, light and rainfall, and erratic weather remains the greatest risk. Timing of harvest and rapid milling are critical, particularly in a climate where early frosts and high winds can quickly damage fruit. As a result, production is currently small-scale and premium-priced, positioned closer to artisanal European oils than to mass-market Mediterranean brands.

The Schwarz Group, Europe’s largest retail conglomerate and owner of Lidl and Kaufland, is advancing plans with Deutsche Telekom to pursue one of the European Union’s flagship AI gigafactory projects, massive data centres designed to host and train next-generation artificial intelligence models.

Under current discussions, Schwarz and Deutsche Telekom aim to jointly build an AI-focused data centre in Germany and apply for funding from the EU’s €20 billion AI gigafactory initiative, which targets four to five facilities capable of hosting roughly 100,000 AI chips each. Schwarz is already executing a historic €11 billion investment in a new data centre campus in Lübbenau, Brandenburg, planned with up to 100,000 GPUs, highlighting its ambitions to offer sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure beyond its retail operations.

For European FMCG retailers and manufacturers, this collaboration signals a strategic pivot: harnessing AI for supply-chain optimization, demand forecasting, automated product management, and localized model development, while keeping data within the EU’s regulatory framework. Schwarz’s STACKIT cloud infrastructure emphasizes data sovereignty and compliance with European standards—a growing priority among regulated industries wary of dependence on U.S. hyperscalers.

The broader picture reflects Europe’s pursuit of technological autonomy. By combining Telekom’s connectivity and data-centre expertise with Schwarz’s cloud ambitions, the partnership could accelerate digital transformation in consumer goods sectors while strengthening European AI ecosystems and reducing reliance on non-European cloud providers.

Ghent University Hospital has landed a four-year partnership with Kruidvat under which the drugstore retailer will supply private label diapers, baby wipes and baby food to the hospital’s maternity wards. The agreement makes Ghent University Hospital the first hospital in Belgium to use Kruidvat products for newborn care and infant nutrition. The deal also seems to be unique in Europe.

The partnership is the result of a European public tender in which multiple suppliers were evaluated. According to the hospital, bids were assessed on a predefined set of criteria including product quality, ease of use in a clinical environment, compliance with relevant regulations, delivery reliability and total cost of ownership. The tender process ran over an extended period and was assessed separately for each of the three product groups. The framework agreement entered into force in November 2025 and will run four years.

Under the contract, Kruidvat supplies diapers in the requested sizes and variants, alongside detailed product and compliance information for care teams. Cleansing wipes are provided for daily use in maternity and related departments, with packaging and specifications aligned with hospital requirements and applicable legislation. The agreement also covers baby food, specifically fruit and vegetable jars, supplied in age-appropriate ranges with full ingredient lists, allergen declarations and batch traceability in line with EU rules for foods for infants and young children.

Kruidvat Belgium’s managing director Bert Verhoef has described the selection by a major academic hospital as an endorsement of the retailer’s private label quality, highlighting that the products meet clinical specifications while remaining significantly more affordable than established branded alternatives. Beyond supply, Kruidvat supports the hospital teams during implementation and onboarding.

Deliveries are made according to agreed frequencies and inventory parameters, and both parties have scheduled regular evaluation periods throughout the contract to review product performance, service levels and feedback from hospital departments.

UK supermarkets are clearly rapidly responding to the consumer shift driven by appetite-suppressing GLP-1 weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy, Mounjaro and Ozempic, creating a new food occasion that could help retailers maintain sales.

In mid-December, Morrisons proudly claimed it was the first UK supermarket to launch GLP-1 friendly own brand ready meals. It partnered with Applied Nutrition for a range of 53 high-protein co-branded products. Subsequently, Marks & Spencer announced a new line of own label ‘Nutrient Dense’ foods for consumers who are eating less. 

Then Co-op followed suit and introduced its new ‘Good Fuel – Power Up Your Plate’ offer, including new mini meals, which have been specially developed for shoppers with smaller appetites. Asda brought four high-protein ‘power pots’ to market that also contain at least one of the recommended five daily servings of fruit and vegetables. Iceland Foods has expanded its weight-loss range, adding 38 new lines including ready meals, breakfast omelettes and filled pastas to its existing MyProtein and Slimming World ranges.

While the UK currently leads in explicit GLP-1-focused NPD, the broader European picture is more mixed. In most European markets, public systems and private insurance generally restrict funding of anti-obesity GLP-1 medicines, viewing them as high-cost with uncertain long-term value. 

By contrast, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has made progress on targeted reimbursement, covering these medicines for qualifying patients via specialist obesity services, though access is restricted by eligibility criteria and time limits. Some UK private health insurers have begun offering discounted access or structured programmes linked to GLP-1 treatment.

For European manufacturers and private label strategists, the UK experience underscores the commercial value of nutritionally optimised, portion-controlled products that deliver clear health benefits. As GLP-1 adoption grows and eating patterns evolve continent-wide, aligning innovation with appetite management and nutrient density could become a competitive advantage beyond the UK market.

The EU’s Court of Justice has ruled that non-alcoholic drinks cannot be described or labelled as “gin”, confirming that the term is reserved exclusively for spirit drinks made from ethyl alcohol, flavoured with juniper, and containing at least 37.5% ABV.

The case centred on a German challenge to a product marketed as Virgin Gin Alkoholfrei. The manufacturer argued the name clearly signalled its alcohol-free status, but judges ruled that adding “non-alcoholic” does not make the use of “gin” permissible under EU law. The product can remain on sale, but only under a new name.

This follows the EU’s decision last month to prohibit the use of key “meaty” terms for describing plant-based versions of certain foods.

Grocery-retail apps have shifted from being convenient add-ons to becoming core tools that shape modern shopping behaviour. Recent insights from NielsenIQ (NIQ) show that apps are increasingly central to how consumers plan, save, and purchase — a trend accelerated by ongoing economic uncertainty and rising living costs. In this environment, shoppers value transparency and control, and digital tools help them manage budgets more effectively.

Adoption continues to rise across Europe. NIQ’s Consumer Panel reports that around two-thirds of German households now use at least one retailer app, with coupon activation remaining the most popular function. These digital incentives are not merely promotional extras: they influence store choice, encourage larger basket sizes, and increase purchase frequency. Heavy app users generate significantly more “big trolley” shops than non-users.

Nine leading French retailers – including E.Leclerc, Carrefour, Auchan, Les Mousquetaires, U, Casino, Lidl, and Metro– have formally joined the Open Climat platform, a shared system designed to collect and standardise suppliers’ product-level carbon data. The initiative, backed by the French Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD) and Perifem, received approval from the French Competition Authority at the end of October, clearing the way for a national roll-out.

For retailers and manufacturers alike, the focus is Scope 3 emissions, which account for more than 96% of the consumer sector’s climate impact. By pooling data through an independent third party, Open Climat aims to accelerate decarbonisation and ensure consistent, scientifically validated reporting across the industry. A formal Stakeholder Committee – bringing together key manufacturing federations such as ANIA, FEEF, Ilec and others – has been created to guarantee transparency, safeguard competitive neutrality and oversee platform governance.

The private label share across 17 countries in Europe is growing according to data from NielsenIQ. The value share grew to 384bn€, or 38.7% of the market based on MAT W40 2025 (+0.28%pnt versus MAT W40 2024). NielsenIQ surveyed 17 markets for PLMA’s 2025 International Private Label Market update and noticed an increase for retail brands in 12 out of the 17 countries. 

European markets remain some of the biggest private label markets globally, 12 markets have a private label share position above 30%, and 8 markets are above 40% of Private Label share.

The highest growth countries in private label share are Spain (+1.1%pnt), Austria (+0.7%pnt), The Netherlands (+0.5%pnt), and Poland (+0.5%pnt). The country with the highest share across the 17 countries tracked is Switzerland. The share of Switzerland is 52.3%, which makes it the only country with a share higher than 50%.

French retailer Auchan has confirmed plans to place almost all its 300 supermarkets in France under the Intermarché and Netto banners, making Intermarché its largest franchise partner. This means Auchan will keep ownership of the stores and staff, but the shops will operate day-to-day as Intermarché or Netto supermarkets, following their commercial strategy, pricing, sourcing and store concepts. Effectively, these Auchan outlets will “become” Intermarché or Netto stores while still belonging to Auchan.

Subject to competition-authority approval, the transition is expected by late 2026. Auchan will create a separate legal entity to run the franchised stores, while Intermarché will take responsibility for product supply, merchandising standards and inventory management. According to Guillaume Darrasse, CEO of Auchan Retail, the move allows the supermarkets to “immediately benefit” from Intermarché’s strong price positioning—critical in France’s increasingly aggressive value-driven market.

The European Parliament has voted by a large majority to define “meat” as the edible parts of animals, a move that could see familiar terms such as “burger”, “sausage”, “steak” and “escalope” reserved exclusively for animal-derived products. The proposal forms part of a wider review of EU food labelling and agricultural marketing regulations and would, if implemented, prevent plant-based or cell-cultured alternatives from using words traditionally associated with meat.

The amendment, introduced by French MEP Céline Imart, follows ongoing debate about how plant-based foods should be presented to consumers. Supporters of the measure argue that restricting meat-related terms will protect clarity for consumers and fairness for livestock farmers, ensuring that products labelled as meat are unambiguously animal-based. They say the proposal is not directed against plant-based or vegetarian foods but is instead about ensuring transparent labelling and consistent use of established food terms across the European market.