As summer draws closer and the days get longer, Kellogg’s Ireland is encouraging its staff members to take that much-needed break away from their screens by offering Friday afternoons off work. Launched in 2005, Kellogg’s Summer Hours scheme runs annually, from May to September, for its 300+ Dublin-based employees. It offers colleagues the chance to finish work at 12pm on a Friday for those who are office based, or on a weekday of their choice for the business’s field sales teams – provided that they have completed a full week’s hours. Sarah Ferguson, general manager, Kellogg’s Ireland, said, ”At Kellogg’s, we have a long history of offering flexible working, and Summer Hours is a great way to encourage our people to take time away from their desks. The programme has been in place for […] years now, and we’re continuously looking at new ways we can support our teams.”
On Monday, McDonald’s became one of the biggest global names to exit Russia, laying out plans to sell all its restaurants after operating for more than 30 years in the country, following the latter’s invasion of Ukraine. The world’s largest burger chain, which owns about 84% of its nearly 850 restaurants in Russia, will take a related non-cash charge of up to $1.4 billion. In March, McDonald’s had decided to close its restaurants in the country, including the iconic Pushkin Square location, in Central Moscow – a symbol of flourishing American capitalism in the dying embers of the Soviet Union. In the Russia of the early nineties, the burger chain became a way to sample Western food and spirit for millions of people – even though the cost of one burger was several times bigger than many city dwellers’ daily budgets. ‘Some might argue that providing access to food and continuing to employ tens of thousands of ordinary citizens is surely the right thing to do,’ chief executive Chris Kempczinski wrote in a letter to employees, ‘but it is impossible to ignore the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.’ Though a vast majority of the stores in Russia are closed, a few franchised stores have stayed open, cashing in on McDonald’s skyrocketing popularity. The company generated about 9%, or $2 billion, of its revenue from Russia and Ukraine last year.
Discounter Lidl Germany is promoting climate protection in its supply chain by encouraging the farmers of its own-brand Ein Gutes Stück Bayern to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per litre of milk by at least 25% by 2026, compared to its 2021 base year. In order to support around 50 farmers, Lidl – together with its supplier, the private dairy Bechtel – founded a climate advisory board with representatives from the Lake Constance Foundation, the Bioland Foundation, the Thünen Institute for Business Administration, and other agricultural groups. With its recognised climate-balancing tool – the AgriClimateChange Tool (ACCT) – the Lake Constance Foundation has determined the CO2 emissions from agricultural operations in Bavaria for the first time. Based on these results, the climate advisory board has recommended tailored climate measures, such as the more efficient use of manure, or the adjustment of feeding, which the farmers are to implement, step by step.
© 2022 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. For more retail news, click here. Click sign up to subscribe to Checkout.
