Hurt by rising operating costs and a shift in consumer taste
against traditional white flour based products, Canadian food giant
George Weston has embarked on a search for better margins in
premium bakery products.
Just 10 days after agreeing to sell its Irish Biscuits unit to
Britain's United Biscuits, French group Danone has changed its mind
and sold the business to local player Fruitfield Foods instead -
neatly avoiding a potentially...
The latest figures from Kellogg suggest that the US-based cereal
and snacks group has weathered the low-carb dieting storm with
relative ease, helped by a combination of new product launches and
increased advertising expenditure,...
Marketing and sales strategy pays off for UK-based firm Muntons
Malted Ingredients (MMI) with turnover increasing more than three
times in as many years.
France's Danone Group continues to see lower returns from its
biscuit business, haunted by rising raw materials costs, changing
consumer appetites and increased competition. But will the sale of
the Jacob's British and Irish...
Increasingly health conscious US consumers chose to bypass the
snack packs of food giant Kraft in the second quarter, a trend
which weighed heavily on profits at the country's biggest food
maker. But a major marketing push highlighting...
Dutch supplier of palm oil-sourced food products Loders Croklaan
has consolidated its position in the growing palm ingredients
market, agreeing this week to buy Malaysian palm oil specialities
company Soctek.
With impending sugar reform set to slash the bottom line for the
owner of British Sugar, UK food and ingredient group Associated
British Foods, the company is driving further into the ingredients
business with the decision to buy...
A number of the leading players from the bakery sectors in the
Baltic States have announced strong first half results in the past
week. The results for Latvia's Hanzas Maisnica, together with
Lithuanian players Vilniaus Duona...
Inter Link Foods has grown rapidly to become Britain's number three
cake maker, helped by canny acquisitions and lucrative licensing
deals. The challenge now is to push into new areas of growth, such
as healthy cakes, and mount...
As food makers continue to roll out new low carb food products to
meet the rise in demand from consumers, starch supplier MGP
Ingredients has agreed to link up with agri-giant Cargill to push a
new resistant starch product aimed at...
Danish bread and cake firm Hatting has expanded into the growing
Russian market, investing millions of euros at a new production
facility in the Moscow area.
RHM, the British company behind some of the country's best-known
brands of bread and cake, could be floated on the stock market
sometime next year, valuing the company at around £1 billion,
according to press reports.
Flowers Foods, the US baked goods producer, is to buy the
Houston-based bread and bun production facilities of compatriot
Sara Lee, including the rights to supply own label and foodservice
customers in the local market.
Eager to protect a burgeoning market in value-added ingredients
wheat protein supplier MGP Ingredients has filed a case against
rival ingredients supplier Manildra Milling corporation.
Nestlé Romania has confirmed that it is to invest a further €3.5
million in its factory in Timisoara, as the company reaffirms its
ambitions to dominate the all-important wafer market in the region.
The demand for ingredients that lift fibre levels and reduce
carbohydrate quantities has been a major boost for textured wheat
protein supplier MGP Ingredients, recently announcing plans to
expand production capacity, writes Lindsey...
Sending a ripple of fear through the food industry, in 2002 the
Swedish Food Administration found high levels of the cancer-causing
compound acrylamide in carbohydrate-rich foods heated to high
temperatures. As global efforts in food...
Swiss baked goods group Hiestand has reported strong increases in
both pre-tax and net profits for 2003 on the back of a double-digit
increase in sales, the first results from a new restructuring
programme designed to make the company...
Vilniaus Duona Plius, the leading bakery group in Lithuania, has
been cleared to buy compatriot Panevezio Duona by the country's
competition authorities, giving the Finnish-owned group complete
control of the company. Meanwhile,...
Flavours and extracts firm Frutarom has gained the worldwide
marketing rights to a range of natural antioxidants made by
Israel's RAD Natural Technologies, boosting its offering to health
and functional food makers.
US colours and flavours group Sensient continues to feel the impact
of soft markets in North American food and beverage segments,
particularly synthetic colours, posting a further drop in income
for the first quarter of 2004. Pressure...
Sugar giant British Sugar helped boost six month results for its
parent, food and ingredients firm Associated British Foods, which
this week reported double-digit growth in profits. But
international agency Oxfam has criticised the...
Number one flavours and fragrance firm Givaudan ambles along in the
first quarter with higher sales in flavours offsetting a drop in
the fragrance division, suggesting that strategies to boost profit
announced back in January this...
Intensified competition in the ingredients marketplace and
disappointing orders for Cocoa Butter Equivalents (CBE) following
the new chocolate rules leads to job losses at Danish fats and oils
firm Aarhus United.
After repeated warnings that the spiralling cost of raw materials
would impact profits this year, US-based breakfast cereal producer
Kellogg yesterday said that it had got off to a
better-than-expected start to the year and forecast...
Global chocolate supplier Barry Callebaut said that recent
acquisitions had boosted its six month figures, with net profit
showing double-digit growth. But low cocoa prices affected
activities at the processing arm of the company.
Natural colours UK firm Overseal Foods is set to carve a deeper
position in the US market, signing a new distribution deal with US
company RFI Ingredients and meeting growing demand for natural
colouring foodstuffs, writes Lindsey...
Rathbones Bakeries, one of the leading suppliers of own label bread
and baked goods to the UK retail trade, has been sold by Greencore,
the Irish food group which is keen to focus on building its
convenience food operations.
Mirroring the state of play for ingredients companies operating
into today's climate, price pressures put the squeeze on third
quarter margins for ingredients giant Danisco.
A substantial increase in goodwill amortisation costs pushed down
operating profits at Irish baked goods and agribusiness group IAWS
in the first half. But sales increased during the half, even after
the impact of currency movements,...
Romanian bakery group Vel Pitar looks set for further expansion
after announcing that it intends to become more acquisitive and
that a significant increase in its investment programme is mooted
for the year.
British bakery ingredients supplier Arkady Craigmillar is to be
renamed BakeMark UK, bringing it into line with all the bakery
companies owned by Dutch parent CSM.
Expecting a higher uptake of vegetable fats by European chocolate
manufacturers following the new '5 per cent' chocolate rule, Danish
oils and fats supplier Aarhus United sees a drop in income for
2003, compounded by currency...
Greggs, the specialist baked goods retailer, said last week that
growth in the booming British sandwich market was showing some
signs of slowing down and that it expected to see increasing
competition in this high added value sector.
US starch supplier MGP Ingredients witnesses the benefits of
'adding-value' to ingredients products with strong growth in
low-carb ingredients pushing demand for its resistant wheat starch
FiberStar 70.
The largest sugar producer in Europe Südzucker has divested all
shares in the Spanish food group Ebro Puleva through the group's
subsidiary Saint Louis Sucre, providing it with breathing space to
concentrate on speciality ingredients.
Two west European bakery groups are extending their presence in
eastern Europe in advance of the enlargement of the European Union
later this year. Sweden's Cerealia group is investing heavily in
its Polish business, while Luxembourg's...
Proof that soaring price rises are not only branded in the hard
pushed natural vanilla market with the news this week that
Norwegian ingredients company Borregaard Synthesis has hiked up the
price for its line of synthetic vanillin...
US alginate producer International Specialty Products (ISP) will
take on a new range of cellulose ingredients after shaking hands on
a deal with Tawainese manufacturer Mingtai Chemical.
Driving hard into value added ingredients has paid off for Irish
food group Kerry as the company faces off tougher currency exposure
in 2003 to see a steady rise in sales and operating profit.
European bottom line benefits from greater...
Tate & Lyle has sweetened its longer term outlook with its
deal, announced on 19 February, to buy out Johnson & Johnson's
sucralose manufacturing capacity, said the investment bank Goldman
Sachs on Monday. The move gives...
Britain's Tate & Lyle group and the US-based McNeil
Nutritionals are to change the way they handle production, sales
and marketing of sucralose, the sweetener developed jointly by the
two companies, following the recent opening...
Dutch food group Wessanen is already seen the benefits of its
far-reaching restructuring programme Operation Phoenix with a
significant recovery in profits at its cereal products division,
Dailycer.
French yeast giant Lesaffre is driving deeper into the US market,
announcing a link up this week with crop processing titan Archer
Daniels Midland to break ground on a new yeast plant in the US.
Athens Re-packing, a unit of US-based snack food manufacturer
Keebler, has been sold to a company called Total Logistic Control
(TLC), itself a unit of the C2 group, for an undisclosed sum.
Frito-Lay, the snack food arm of giant US food and drink group
PepsiCo, was one of the main drivers of growth for the company last
year, not least as a result of various new product launches
designed to tap growing demand for low...
Higher margin ingredients continue to offer financial gains for
textured wheat protein supplier MGP Ingredients. Driving deeper
into the market in 2004 the company will pour millions of dollars
into doubling production of this speciality...
