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Frustration is turning to anger in the ranks of hourly workers at General Motors Co.’s Lockport plant, formerly Delphi Thermal Systems.

The cause is GM’s attempt to gain contract concessions from the United Auto Workers union and its members.

“Definitely there is frustration on the floor. And some are angry, yes. We took a pretty good pay hit a couple years ago,” said Gordie Fletcher, president of UAW Local 686 Unit No. 1 at Lockport.

According to Fletcher, GM wants members to forego a 3.75 percent cost-of-living raise that was scheduled to go into effect in January but which has not been paid.

Also drawing workers’ ire are bonuses that the union says salaried workers have received.

“We don’t think that’s fair. They’re rewarding one group and taking away from another. There should be shared sacrifice,” Fletcher said.

Increasing the frustration is the absence of any new work being assigned to Lockport.

“We want work brought into the plant and aren’t seeing it. Nothing is being said other than that we could have the opportunity to bid on new work – nothing, though, about when or anything else,” Fletcher said.

“That adds to our immense sense of frustration,” he added.

Simmering situation

Anger reportedly is simmering in the ranks of the UAW at the four former Delphi Corp free credit report online. plants that, like Lockport, reverted to GM in 2009 as part of Delphi’s restructuring out of bankruptcy protection.

Much of the opposition comes from workers at plants in Lockport and Rochester, and Saginaw and Grand Rapids, Mich., where UAW members say they are being pushed to renegotiate a contract that included concessions they signed only last year.

“We haven’t seen anything in writing yet, but we know they’re coming for us again,” a GM worker from Grand Rapids recently told a Detroit-based freelance reporter. “We also know they want a ‘no strike’ clause.”

Negotiations (on the concessions) are continuing at each of the plants “a couple times a week and sometimes daily – but there has been very little headway. Actually, I’d classify it as no headway,” Fletcher said.

Unlike previous years, when plants were covered by an industrywide contract negotiated with the Detroit automakers, each former Delphi plant now is responsible for its own labor agreement. The current contract expires in 2011.

A GM spokesman said discussions between GM and the UAW are ongoing and further details are unavailable.

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Call it the Case of the Missing Commission.

The bipartisan panel that President Obama has promised would tackle the nation’s long-term debt problems is nowhere in sight yet.

The delay in getting the commission up and running is due in great part to partisan jockeying from both sides of the aisle and continued uncertainty about whether current Republican lawmakers will agree to take part.

There’s no guarantee that when it does materialize it will have the respect of many in Congress, which would have the final word on the commission’s recommendations.

And the call for the commission has taken on greater urgency in light of the recent global volatility caused by the sovereign debt crisis in Greece, which threatens all of Europe.

"You need a fiscal commission. You need it now," Simon Johnson, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told lawmakers this week.

The commission will be asked to figure out ways to get annual deficits down to 3% of gross domestic product by 2015 and thereafter put the country on a more sustainable fiscal track.

The panel’s timeline will be tight. The commission is supposed to issue its report soon after the mid-term elections in November so Congress can vote on them before the year is out.

So every day that goes by without a commission is valuable time wasted considering the complicated issues it is expected to address — everything from taxes and health care to all spending in the federal budget, including Medicare and Social Security.

What’s the rush?

The commission isn’t expected to make recommendations that — if passed — would go into effect right away. In fact, even many deficit hawks say that now is not the time for fiscal austerity. The time for that would be when the U.S. economy is on firmer footing.

But the swift establishment of the commission would help signal to international markets that the United States is working to get its deficits under control, said Johnson, a former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund.

"I think we should take events of the past few weeks in Europe as a wake-up call," Johnson said.

In the past two months, borrowing costs have soared for Greece, where the annual deficit has risen to 12% of the economy. That has forced the country to choose between defaulting on its debt or trying to convince investors of its creditworthiness by imposing stringent austerity measures such as budget cuts, tax hikes and pay freezes business cards.

Of course, there’s a lot that distinguishes the position of the United States from Greece. But the recent events show just how quickly the markets can turn on sovereign borrowers.

What’s the risk?

If the United States takes its time coming up with a deficit reduction plan, all bets are off.

"If you don’t have [a fiscal commission] … the financial markets are going to push you on the lack of medium-term credible fiscal framework," Johnson said.

And if the push for greater fiscal austerity comes during the second half of 2010, when economic growth is expected to slow, that would harm the U.S. economy.

"Raising taxes and cutting spending — you don’t want to do that in the second half of the year. If the markets force you to, that’s a disaster," Johnson said.

Carmen Reinhart, director of the Center for International Economics at the University of Maryland, has studied the patterns that high-debt countries follow after severe financial crises like the kind that almost felled the U.S. economy in 2008 and 2009.

Like Johnson, Reinhart doesn’t believe this year is the time for implementing austerity measures. But it is the year to come up with a plan of action to reduce the country’s debt over time.

"Market discipline can come without warning. Countries that haven’t laid the groundwork for adjustment come to regret it. This time is not different," Reinhart told lawmakers.

There is nothing magic or even necessary about a fiscal commission. But the fact is Congress is showing no signs of taking on sacred cows and addressing the fiscal problem head-on.

Still, having a commission and having it be successful are two very different things.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan group of leading budget experts, has warned against anyone pinning all their hopes for fiscal restraint on a commission.

"In a politically charged environment, a commission is a great idea. However, the administration must have a ‘Plan B’ in case the commission does not succeed." 

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DETROIT–The race to build alternative energy vehicles moved up a notch Monday when Toyota Motor Corp. revealed a hybrid compact for the first time that could move into production within three to five years.

In unveiling a lime green FT-CH "dedicated hybrid," at the less splashy than usual North American International Auto Show, Toyota revealed it also plans to boost its gas-electric fleet with eight new models during the next few years – and none of them will be next-generation versions of current vehicles. The company now has seven hybrids in showrooms.

Toyota, which surpassed General Motors as the auto industry’s world leader last year, said it plans to hit one million in annual worldwide hybrid sales early this decade. Most of those sales will come in North America, where consumers, because of climbing gas prices and climate-change concerns, are starting to shift to smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles that are less damaging to the environment.

Toyota officials said the Japanese automaker’s assault on the alternative energy car market will include the development of a family of vehicles around the Prius, the company’s flagship hybrid model. The Prius, the world’s first hybrid, reached sales of more than two million during the past decade.

Ray Tanguay, a managing officer for parent Toyota and chief executive officer of the company’s Canadian manufacturing operations, said the FT-CH is under consideration for production in Japan in the three- to five-year range.

"It’s a fair expectation," he said.

Tanguay said Toyota is targeting young buyers, or what some company officials call the "8-bit generation," after the microprocessor technology that dominated the budding home video game industry during the 1980s. Pricing would be below the Prius, which now has a base manufacturer’s suggested retail price of about $27,000.

Toyota said the vehicle is lighter and more fuel efficient than the Prius. It is 22 inches shorter than the mid-size Prius but can still seat five people comfortably, the company noted in promotional material.

Prius sales improved marginally in Canada last year to 4,610 despite a sharp decline in the overall market.

Toyota, which struggled like other major automakers because of the world recession last year, wants to offer a variety of hybrid choices, including plug-in models by 2012 and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in 2015.

"We must re-imagine the automobile, a century after its invention, with powertrains that greatly reduce or even eliminate the use of conventional petroleum fuels," said Toyota Canada president Yoichi Tomihara. "The electrification of the automobile is just one of many alternatives and the most successful example of this to date has been the gas-electric hybrid."

However, Toyota and other automakers have acknowledged they face major a challenge to reduce the cost of hybrids and full electric vehicles to make them more affordable and practical to consumers because of battery costs, travel range and charging infrastructure.

Some other automakers promoted their hybrid and electric capabilities at the show. Fiat, Chrysler’s new partner, showed an electric Fiat 500 subcompact, for example, but the company did not disclose any timing for production.

The 22nd annual show’s media preview did not feature the splashy presentations that dominated the event in the past. Instead, companies showed smaller vehicles with an emphasis on fuel economy.

More politicians toured the event since the U.S. and Canadian governments have become shareholders in GM and Chrysler, which got taxpayer loans to stay alive last year.

"It’s not an auto show any more," said veteran industry watcher Dennis DesRosiers. "It’s a political spin show … the industry has to show governments they’re listening."

He said in the U.S., several automakers are working on costly technology to improve fuel economy without downsizing autos because Americans won’t buy enough smaller vehicles.

"The question is will there be enough volume because of the higher prices," he said. "It may take a decade before those prices come down enough."

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The European Central Bank may today announce plans to scale back its emergency lending while keeping interest rates at a record low to foster an economic recovery.

ECB policy makers meeting in Frankfurt will leave the benchmark interest rate at 1 percent, according to all 54 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. President Jean-Claude Trichet will say the ECB’s third offer of 12-month loans to banks on Dec. 15 will be the last and may also signal a reduction in other lending operations, economists said.

The ECB, which has been flooding banks with cheap cash to fight Europe’s worst recession since World War II, said last month it will gradually withdraw the extra liquidity to prevent inflation as the economy gathers strength. At the same time, officials don’t want to give the impression they’re moving closer to rate increases, people familiar with their discussions said. Any indication that the ECB could tighten policy sooner than the Federal Reserve may fuel further gains in the euro.

“This is going to be the big one,” said James Nixon, co- chief European economist at Societe Generale SA in London. “They need to very, very carefully set out a timetable for how liquidity will be drawn down, but they don’t want to plant expectations that the exit implies they’ll raise interest rates.”

The ECB announces its rate decision at 1:45 p.m. and Trichet holds a press conference 45 minutes later.

Global Stimulus

While Australia’s central bank has raised rates three times in as many months, the Fed and the Bank of England have signaled they’re in no rush to increase borrowing costs from record lows as their economies struggle to shake off the effects of the biggest global slump since the Great Depression. The Bank of Japan announced new measures this week, saying it will offer three-month loans to banks at 0.1 percent to combat deflation.

Trichet will today unveil the ECB’s new staff projections, including the first forecasts for 2011. Governing Council members such as Luxembourg’s Yves Mersch and Slovakia’s Ivan Sramko have said they expect the bank to revise up its outlook for the 16-nation economy, which emerged from recession in the third quarter.

In September, the central bank said it expected gross domestic product to grow 0.2 percent in 2010 after shrinking 4.1 this year. It projected inflation of 0.4 percent this year and 1.2 percent next year. The ECB aims to keep inflation just below 2 percent over the medium term.

‘Gradual Recovery’

The December projections will show “a gradual recovery and moderately positive inflation,” said Nick Matthews, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London. “They’ll be consistent with the view that the policy rate can remain low for a long time.”

The euro has gained 20 percent against the dollar since mid-February, rising above $1.51 yesterday, which is threatening to hurt European exports.

Some policy makers have nevertheless expressed concern that banks are becoming too reliant on ECB cash, and are pushing for the extraordinary lending measures to be withdrawn.

“Not all our liquidity measures will be needed to the same extent as in the past,” Trichet said on Nov. 20. “Eventually, the administration of painkillers must be stopped if patients are to get on their own two feet.”

Trichet signaled on Nov. 5 that the ECB is unlikely to renew its 12-month loans to banks after December’s offering and promised to give details today. He’ll also say whether the ECB has decided to alter the interest rate on the loans. People familiar with the deliberations said last week that policy makers were leaning toward keeping the rate fixed at 1 percent.

‘Balancing Act’

The ECB may announce plans to reduce the frequency of its three-month and six-month loans, which it currently offers every month. The “first steps of a gradual phasing-out of non- standard measures” may include “a lower frequency for three- month and six-month refinancing operations,” Belgian council member Guy Quaden said Nov. 16.

Trichet could also field questions about Dubai’s decision to seek to delay debt repayments, which roiled financial markets this week, and Greece’s ballooning budget deficit. ECB Vice President Lucas Papademos met with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou last weekend to discuss the issue.

With markets still jittery about the sustainability of the economic recovery, the ECB will be wary of upsetting the apple cart, said Colin Ellis, an economist at Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe Ltd. in London.

“The message Trichet wants to convey is that the ECB is well placed to remove its monetary stimulus and has a strategy for doing so, but that it’s not going to do it too quickly,” he said. “It’s a bit of a balancing act.”

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Consumer confidence in Italy unexpectedly rose in November after the economy emerged from its worst recession since World War II.

The Isae Institute’s consumer confidence index climbed to 112.8 from 111.7 in October, the Rome-based research center Isae said today in an e-mailed statement. Economists had forecast a drop to 111.5 for this month, the median of 13 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey showed.

“There is a widespread perception that the crisis is over and this is an encouraging sign,” said Luigi Speranza, an economist at BNP Paribas in London. “However, consumers are still cautious about the purchase of durable goods and the outlook for t employment, leaving a question mark on consumer spending in the months ahead.”

Italy’s economy emerged from its fourth recession since 2001 in the third quarter as the recovery in Europe boosted exports, and growth may accelerate to more than 1 percent in 2010, Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti said yesterday. Government stimulus measures, particularly car trade-in incentives, helped buffer the drop in consumer spending and benefited Fiat Spa, the country’s biggest manufacturer.

Those incentives are due to be phased out and unemployment is still rising, which may weigh on confidence in the coming months. The jobless rate may exceed 8 pay day advance.5 percent in 2010 from 7.4 percent in the second quarter, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said last week.

Holiday Spending

Those job concerns may slow consumer spending during the holiday season, hurting reatailers such as department story operator Coin SpA. A third of Italians say they will not buy planned Christmas presents this year, according to a survey released yesterday by retailers lobby Confcommercio. More than 11 percent said they still don’t know whether they will spend as much as last year on gifts, Confcommercio said.

“The pace of job destruction in Italy has started to slow,” Marco Valli, chief economist at UniCredit Mib in Milan, said on Nov. 23. “However, given the huge amount of slack in the labor market, genuine employment growth is a matter of 2011 at the earliest.”

Italian optimism contrasts with the mood in Germany. Consumer confidence in Europe’s biggest economy unexpectedly fell in November for a second month as households grew concerned about job security, a separate report said today.

Isae conducted its confidence survey between Nov. 2 and Nov. 17.

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Swiss food giant Nestle may consider a bid for Britain’s Cadbury to challenge a hostile 9.9 billion-pound bid by Kraft Foods Inc and a potential move by Hershey, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.

Nestle was still weighing its options and could decide against a bid, Bloomberg said, citing two unnamed people with knowledge of the matter.

Nestle declined to comment on Sunday.

Italian chocolate maker Ferrero and U.S.-based Hershey, have teamed up and said on Wednesday they were reviewing a possible offer for Cadbury.

Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore has reported that Hershey executives will go to Italy to hold a definitive meeting with Ferrero in the coming days.

Ferrero was not available for a comment.

Meanwhile, Cadbury’s Chairman Roger Carr told the Sunday Telegraph his group would prefer a merger with U.S. chocolate maker Hershey rather than Kraft. But he added both bids could fail should they not be generous enough.

COMPETITION HEADACHE

Analysts had been viewing Nestle as a potential suitor for Cadbury. But such a deal may face some antitrust hurdles.

Nestle said in October it was likely to exercise its option beginning in January 2010 to sell its remaining 52 percent stake in Alcon, potentially raising up to $28 billion, so it could easily afford big buys fast payday loans.

The Swiss giant has declined to comment on Cadbury so far. It has said it does not plan any big acquisitions this year or next, but will focus on a strategy of “bolt-on” buys.

Due to competition issues, analysts had speculated that the Swiss company might consider a joint offer with U.S.-based Hershey Co, with the U.S. group seeking Cadbury’s chocolate interests and leaving Nestle with the Trident chewing gum business.

But Nestle has been silent since Hershey and Italy’s Ferrero said separately on Wednesday they were considering a bid.

Some market players have suggested Nestle could still help Hershey fund a bid by buying its U.S. license for the KitKat brand, potentially worth around $3 billion to 3.5 billion.

The Cadbury riddle is a difficult one to solve as virtually all players would face antitrust issues if they move, said an M&A expert who declined to be named.

(Writing by Lisa Jucca and Emma Thomasson; additional reporting by Jo Winterbottom in Milan; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

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Apple’s lips are sealed about its widely rumored tablet computer, but technology experts are giddy about the device, already exclaiming it will be the gadget to end all gadgets.

Executives at Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) never discuss products that are in the works, so there’s no confirmation that the thing even exists. But rumors are circulating that Steve Jobs and Co. have designed a magazine-sized, touch-screen, hand-held, all-in-one device that is half-iPhone, half-Macintosh computer.

It’s supposedly going to make its debut in the next few months, and you can have it for the low, low price of $600. Or $800. Maybe $1,000. No one’s really sure.

If the rumors are true, the tablet will be able to do basically everything a gadget could possibly do. It’s an e-reader, a gaming device, and a music player. You can watch TV and movies on it and surf the Internet (or so we’ve heard). And it will have thousands of third-party apps available for it … or maybe it will run Mac OS X. That’s all still unknown.

Coolest device … ever? Maybe. Some analysts are channeling their inner-Frodo, saying the Apple tablet will be the one gadget to rule them all.

"This will be the next big thing," said Laura DiDio, principal analyst at ITIC. "Apple is going to wow everybody with the tablet."

Any time Steve Jobs gets on stage, the expectations are incredibly high, but they are especially lofty for the tablet. Analysts and investors are saying that this device could revolutionize the handheld world in the same way the the iPhone changed the smartphone market.

"The tablet will change the game, because Apple will throw down the gauntlet at the competitors, and force them to follow along," DiDio said.

According to DiDio, the tablet will have a 10-inch to 12-inch screen and a high-end graphics card that will enable stunning resolution — even more so than the iPhone and iPod Touch. She said the device will come in several different models that offer varieties of Internet connections, such as Wi-Fi or 3G, perhaps through a contract with AT&T (T, Fortune 500).

Another cool feature will be the Web cam, which business travelers will be able to use for video conferencing on the go, DiDio said.

Some analysts say all of those features will kill other single-function handheld devices, making the Apple tablet the go-to handheld device for computing, Internet browsing, reading, gaming and entertainment low cost payday loans.

"Apple will come out with the tablet and blow everyone away," said Dan Ackerman, senior editor at CNET. "Instead of taking along a Kindle and an iPod, that [tablet] could become the device you carry with you."

The cheaply priced netbook market may also take a hit when the tablet comes out. Apple typically prices their products higher than competitors, because they install top-of-the-line hardware, but DiDio said Apple learned from its mistake of pricing the original iPhone at $599, pricing out many potential customers.

"The Tablet will be awesome, and my guess is that it will be an instant hit for people who loved Kindles and people who want netbooks," said David Wertheimer, executive director of the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center.

Wertheimer said he finds it hard to comprehend how the tablet will replace all other on-the-go tech products. "But then again, what I can’t imagine, Steve Jobs often can," he added.

…Or the fizzle may fail. Not everyone thinks the Apple tablet will be the gadget to end all gadgets.

"What we’ve found in the past with these multi-function devices is that they’re better for ad-hoc purposes, like quick and dirty tasks," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with Yankee Group. "They’re not for any prolonged, high-performance use."

For instance, smartphones have cameras for quick snapshots, but when you go on vacation, you’re probably going to want your digital camera to come along with you for high-quality photos.

Kerravala said the same logic applies to the tablet’s other functions, including its e-reading capability: "If you want to sit and read a book, the ergonomics of a device that’s specifically designed for reading are going to be better."

Similarly, only 3% of people whose cell phones can play music say they use their phone as their primary music player, according to a Yankee Group study. Even if it means carrying around two devices, an MP3 player is bound to have a better user experience than a multi-function cell phone.

That doesn’t mean the Apple tablet — if it exists — won’t be cool. But you may want to hang onto your iPod, Kindle, Nintendo DS, portable DVD player and laptop for a while. 

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BNP Paribas, France’s biggest bank by market capitalization, on Tuesday joined the rush to pay back governments for their financial support during the credit crisis.

The bank launched a capital increase for 4.3 billion euros ($6.30 billion) as part of its move to reimburse the French state early on its 5.1 billion euros capital advance.

BNP Paribas said the capital increase would be an underwritten rights issue with preferential subscription rights for ordinary shareholders. It added that the deal would boost its earnings per share (EPS) by around 8.4 percent.

The capital hike was set at 1 new ordinary share for 10 existing shares at a subscription price of 40 euros per share.

The subscription price represents a discount of around 29 percent to BNP’s closing share price of 56.57 euros on Monday.

“I could subscribe to the offer. It’s an attractive price,” said Agilis Gestion fund manager Arnaud Scarpaci. Scarpaci recently sold 2,500 BNP Paribas shares at around 55 euros.

BNP said it would, as of October, reimburse the 5.1 billion euros in non-voting shares subscribed to by the French state on March 31 and will make a payment of 226 million euros, calculated over the seven-month period.

The move, making the most of low rates and recovering share valuations — with the CAC-40 .FCHI blue-chip index breaking the 3,800 points index for the first time since October 2008 — will also free BNP Paribas from the state’s conditions for its financial help, including limits on bonus payments.

At 0726 GMT (3:26 a.m. EDT), BNP shares lead the gainers on the CAC 40 rising 3.2 percent while the DJ Stoxx European bank index .SX7P was up 0.6 percent.

SEEKING FREEDOM FROM GOVERNMENTS

Among European banks, Italy’s Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo are set to raise funds in an effort to keep politicians at a distance and take advantage of healthy capital markets.

Britain’s Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland are also considering raising billions from equity raising or asset sales to limit the state’s stake.

Swiss bank UBS chief executive Oswald Gruebel told the Financial Times the bank also wanted to cut ties with the Swiss government by buying its way out of a bad bank deal and aimed to return to health within a year.

“BNP Paribas has increased its loan advances in France by 5.5 billion euros over the last 12 months,” BNP Paribas Chief Executive Baudouin Prot said in a statement.

BNP said the capital increase, combined with new shareholders’ equity resulting from the scrip dividend (0.75 billion euros) and a capital increase reserved for employees (0.26 billion euros), will finance the reimbursement of all the non-voting shares issued on March 31, 2009 to the Societe de Prise de Participation de l’Etat (SPPE) pursuant to the French State’s plan to support the economy. 

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Large Cadbury investors are worried Chief Executive Todd Stitzer may overplay his hand in fending off Kraft’s $10 billion offer, with no white knight in sight to spark a bidding war.

The U.S. firm’s current 745 pence-per share offer was “unacceptable,” shareholders contacted by Reuters said, but a bid of more than 900 pence mentioned by analysts seemed unlikely because of the lack of any rival bidders.

“It’s a bit dangerous to get too greedy because they haven’t got any competitive tension and there is a risk that they fail if they get too aggressive,” said one UK-based top 25 investor in Cadbury, who declined to be named.

“No-one is going to accept the current bid and we believe Kraft will pay more — I am not sure that Kraft would want to pay that much (900 pence). Above 8 pounds would be the killing zone,” he said.

Smaller Kraft shareholders said they expected the company to raise its offer, and that a 10-15 percent increase would be acceptable, raising the bid to around 850 pence.

Stitzer spent Thursday telling a fair trade retail conference about the “principled capitalism” he feared was at risk from over-leveraged dealmakers, according to media reports, though he did not refer directly to Kraft.

He also harked back to Cadbury’s heritage: the company was founded by a family of Quakers who wanted to wean people away from alcohol and make them drink chocolate instead.

The robust public stance came after Stitzer detailed potential benefits from a takeover, with his comments leading to some speculation that Cadbury would see a price of 900 pence as fair and that it was leaving the door ajar to Kraft.

A Cadbury spokesman said after Stitzer’s comments that they were theoretical and did not signal a shift in the company’s position.

Cadbury shares traded up 0.5 percent at 798 pence by 1241 GMT, outpacing a 0.2-percent rise in the FTSE 100. The shares were at 568 pence before the offer was made.

A UK-based top 35 investor in Cadbury said: “The worry for us is that they will overplay their hand and completely scupper a bid and then we will be left with a share price that is rather too high for the ordinary operating business.”

SHAREHOLDER SHIFT

Cadbury is clearly proud of its heritage — its telephone hold music is a nostalgic compendium of advertising jingles — but its ownership has undergone a huge shift over the decades.

It was a family firm for more than a century, and family members still hold stakes, but its main investors are now the large institutions which dominate the corporate landscape, and with an increasingly North American flavor.

Data from Thomson Reuters show the confectioner is largely split between 153 UK investors and 134 from the United States, equating to percentage holdings of 40.5 and 22.6 respectively. 

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Loblaw Cos. Ltd. is kicking off another round of grocery-store price wars, as rival Sobeys announces quarterly results showing it’s making gains on the market leader.

Starting today, Loblaw said its Big Brands event moves into the Ontario market, as well as Atlantic and western Canada. The event is already running in Quebec.

For three weeks, consumers will be able to stock up on popular national brands from Kraft, Pepsi and Nestlé as well as Loblaw’s own President’s Choice products, in some case saving up to 50 per cent off the regular price, the company said.

"We’re committed to making shopping easier and less stressful for our customers, especially during the hectic, back-to-school period," said Craig Hutchison, Loblaw senior vice-president of marketing.

The brand-focused blitz, the third since last fall, comes as Sobeys’s parent Empire Co. reported figures that show it continues to gain market share at a faster pace than its rival.

Sobeys’s sales grew 5.3 per cent to $3.91 billion in the quarter ended Aug. 1, as the company opened and expanded more stores, improved operations and benefited from inflation.

Same-store sales, considered a key measure of retail performance, grew 4 per cent, the company also said, while operating income grew 14.2 per cent to $121.6 million. Empire’s net earnings, including its real estate and other investments, rose 8.3 per cent to $89.7 million.

Sobeys operates 1,300 stores across Canada under its own name, as well as IGA and Price Chopper, its discount format.

Loblaw remains the far larger chain but is growing more slowly. Loblaw sales rose 2.8 per cent to $7.2 billion in its latest quarter, ending June 20. Same-store sales rose 2.5 per cent.

Metro Inc., which operates the former Dominion and A&P chains, said sales grew 4.3 per cent to $3.5 billion in its latest quarter, ending July 4. Same-store sales rose 4.2 per cent. Net earnings jumped 22.5 per cent to $112.6 million.

All three major supermarket chains are being challenged by the entry into fresh food retailing by global discount merchant Wal-Mart Canada Corp.

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