Brands made by Starbucks, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are among the products that have attracted the most new customers in the US this year, according to a recent report. Market Force Information, the information and insights specialist, surveyed nearly 6,000 shoppers, in order to determine which goods had secured their custom for the first time in January 2010.

The coffee range launched into grocery stores by Starbucks last year came out on top in the tea and coffee sector, and proved twice as popu...
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PepsiCo today announced that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has granted early termination of the waiting period for its previously announced plan of merger with PepsiAmericas.

Several members of the company's leadership team will be leaving their posts shortly after the closing of the company's merger with PepsiCo. The officers who have signaled their intent to leave include Alexander H. Ware, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Anne D. Sample, executive vice president o...

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US snack firm Diamond Foods acquires snack maker Kettle Foods from private-equity firm Lion Capital for USD 615m.

Diamond makes a range of nuts products, Kettle manufactures potato chips and crisp snacks and has operations in both the US and the UK.

Chairman, president and CEO of Diamond, Michael Mendes said Kettle is a "strong, strategic fit" to their business."We believe Kettle Foods is a strong fit with the capability to provide solid financial returns for our shareholders, and we plan t...

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A seventh person has died after eating cheese made by Prolactal contaminated with Listeria, Austrian authorities confirmed yesterday.

The 57-year-old man from Lower Austria died at the end of December two days after being admitted to hospital, a spokeswoman from the country’s food safety agency, AGES, told. The latest victim is the fifth Austrian fatality, with the other two being German.

The Austrian food safety watchdog said 12 people had been hospitalised since the beginning of the...

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Pure Circle and Imperial Sugar have  made a joint venture to offer sugar and stevia combinations to food and beverages industries. PureCircle manufactures a natural, high intensity Reb A sweetener derived from the leaves of the stevia plant. It has been positioning the sweetener as a possible complement to sugar for some time, to take advantage of both products’ natural status, meaning that unlike many other sweeteners that could be used to reduce sugar, manufacturers could continue to use ...

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The Coca-Cola Company and Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. announce that they have entered into agreements that will strategically advance the Coca-Cola system in North America and drive long-term value for all shareholders. In addition, the parties have an agreement in principle to expand CCE's European business.

"Our 2020 Vision calls for decisive and timely action to continuously improve and evolve our global franchise system to best serve our customers and consumers everywhere. Consistent with ...
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The world's biggest food group Nestle looks well placed to show balanced growth between volume and price in 2010 and outperform its two arch European rivals in a year of likely sluggish economic recovery.

29 analysts out of 39 surveyed by Reuters see Nestle shares as a "buy" or "strong buy" and say its shares look cheap compared to its two rivals based on its forecast performance and its bumper returns from dividends and share buybacks.

While Unilever and Danone had to cut prices in the latter ...
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According to the survey released by Brand Finance (R) Walmart is the most valuable global brand with a brand value of 41.4 bill USD.  Coca Cola is the number 3 in the ranking and the best valued food brand in the list.

The study provides an opinion on the point-in-time value of the world’s leading brands. Each brand has been accorded a brand rating: a benchmark study of the strength, risk and future potential of a brand relative to its competitor set as well as a brand value: a summary me...
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Heinz CEO, William R. Johnson argued in a presentation to investors that there are four reasons why the industry has a strong upside.

First, he highlighted the growth potential of Emerging Markets, where the ranks of new middle class, brand-conscious consumers are increasing at a rapid rate. "Emerging Markets represent a target-rich base of consumers who are likely to spend more and more of their income on branded packaged foods as they prosper", said Johnson. "Emerging Markets are on track...

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Speaking to analysts at the CAGNY (Consumer Analysts Group of New York) conference being held in Florida, Zein Abdalla, CEO of PepsiCo Europe, said that the company is focused on expanding its operations from top to bottom in the market.

PepsiCo is investing in developing its production and logistics capabilities in Russia, as well as building brands and growing its portfolio, he revealed. “The best is truly yet to come. We have built the largest food and beverage company from a multi-natio...
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Despite the gloom of the recession that enveloped USA last year, with its impact still being felt, U.S. consumers haven’t given up on chocolate, even as they cut back on other frills and took steps to curtail spending in virtually every way possible, according to a study conducted by Mintel.

“Chocolate kept selling through the recession; people kept buying chocolate and eating chocolate,” says Marcia Mogelonsky, senior food and drink analyst at Chicago-based market research company Minte...
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Shares of Starbucks are gaining steam after the Associated Press’s Ashley Heher reports Burger King executives said they’ll add Starbucks coffee to the menu to rival McDonalds.

The Starbucks brew will replace Burger King’s “BK Joe” brand, introduced five years ago, Heher reports. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Heher notes that Seattle’s Starbucks has been looking to promote its lesser known “Seattle’s Best” brand. The company signed Subway stores to carry the coffee ...

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U.S. food makers are looking overseas for more profitable growth over the next few years, as they often must rely on short-term price promotions to drive sales at home.

Kraft Foods Inc said its acquisition of Cadbury would accelerate long-term growth, though it expects the deal to hurt 2010 results."The U.S. consumer is all grown up, and future growth in consumer spending will be outside the U.S.," said Edward Jones analyst Matt Arnold.From that perspective, Kraft buying Cadbury makes a great ...

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Hershey Co CEO David West does not think the charitable trust that has the controlling vote at the largest U.S. chocolate maker stops him from running the company the way it should be run."I don't feel any roadblocks because of that ownership structure," West said during an interview on the sidelines of the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference.

Hershey is getting ready to battle the new No. 1 in the world confectionery business when Kraft Foods Inc closes its $18.4 billion acquisiti...

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Kraft Foods saw profits more than treble in the final quarter of last year. Profits for the three months to 31 December rose to $710m (£453m), up from $178m for the equivalent period in 2008.

Sales for the period grew by just over 3% to $11bn, but improved by just 0.4% on a like-for-like basis. Overall sales for the year fell nearly 4% to $40.4bn, which the company blamed on fluctuations in currency.

CEO Ms.Irene Rosenfeld labelled the performance “a strong finish to our three-year turnaroun...
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Swiss chocolate manufacturers faced sales declines in 2009 spread equally across domestic and export markets, according to Chocosuisse. In a year-to-year comparison, sales revenue dropped 6.4 percent for Chocosuisse, the 18-member association of Swiss chocolate manufacturers. Domestic sales fell 6.9 percent from the previous year while chocolate imported to the country rose 2.7 percent.

Chocosuisse reports it was not able to grow its export business, which it partially attributes to the lowe...

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Danone has launched a flavoured milk under Choco Plus brand in India, which is the first dairy launch of Danone in the country. The 200ml product is priced at INR16 (US$0.13) and is being produced in a dairy product plant based in Pune, near Bombay.

Danone has also announced plans to double the production of dairy products at its new plant in Thailand in order to push into other south-east Asian markets as early as next year.Danone realizes 40% of its sales in emerging markets. 

In April, Danon...

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Pernod Ricard announces that it has signed an agreement to sell a number of Swedish and Danish assets to Altia for a cash consideration of SEK 835 million, or Euro 82 million at current exchange rate.
The transaction includes:

• A number of local wine and spirits brands including in particular Explorer vodka, Lord Calvert whisky, 1 Enkelt bitter, Blossa glögg and Chill Out wines,
• A bottling facility located in Svendborg, Denmark.
• Two logistic centres located in Odense, Denmark and Årst...

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Totaling $355.8 billion, retail sales in January increased 0.5 percent from the previous month and 4.7 percent from January 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC).

Sales for the month at general merchandise stores rose 1.5 percent, the most substantial gain since February 2009.

Core retail sales, which exclude autos, gasoline and building materials, rose 0.8 percent after falling 0.3 percent in December.

In addition, both December and November figures were adjusted to rev...

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Kraft Foods' purchase of Cadbury is likely to have repercussions throughout the cocoa supply chain as a newly created chocolate giant seeks to drive down costs. The new company will be the top player in the chocolate and confectionery industry by revenue, overtaking Mars-Wrigley. Accordingly, traders and analysts expect it to use its increased clout to achieve promised cost savings. The U.S. food group has targeted annual cost savings of at least $675 million a year.

Cocoa futures on ICE rose ...

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Finnish food group Raisio, who owns the Benecol brand, has made a EUR 22.8m (US$ 31.4m) bid to acquire UK snack manufacturer Glisten. The offer values Glisten at EUR1.61 a share, which equates to around 62% more than the UK firm's share price when the market closed yesterday on 9 February. A meeting of Glisten shareholders to vote on the bid will be held on 12 March.

Glisten CEO Paul Simmonds said merging with Raisio will be "the right path for the business to take now.The fit in terms of am...

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Danone announced an increase in full-year profits. The company declared that  Danone sees 2010 financial and economic environment as  “challenging” .The announced net income reached EUR1.14bn (US$1.57bn), which corresponds to a 7.5% increase vs. 2008. But like many other companies in food industry, Danone also has  declared a sales decline of 1.6% down to EUR14.98bn. However when the impact of currency exchange excluded, total sales increased by 3.2% on a like-for-like basis. This was dri...
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PepsiCo plans to stregnthen its global leadership"in snacks in 2010 through acquisitions and the development of healthier products. The firm reported  yesterday (11 Feb.) a 16% increase in full-year profits, driven by gains in its worldwide snack and international beverage businesses.

CEO and chairman Indra Nooyi said they will continue to grow our current businesses in developed markets and  will extend their reach into new markets with targeted acquisitions,said also they will continue to ...

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Candy Industry Magazine has published the top 100 list for the confectionery manufacturers in its February issue. At the top of the list stays Mars Inc, followed by Nestlé, Ferrero, Cadbury and Kraft. Of course if this list to be compiled after the Kraft-Cadbury deal the top player would be the Kraft. The top 15 players are these:

1-   Mars Inc., USA
2-   Nestlé SA, Switzerland
3-   Ferrero Group, Italy
4-   Cadbury PLC, UK
5-   Kraft Foods Co., USA
6-   The Hershey Co., USA
7-   Perfetti Van Mell...
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Kraft Foods  confirmed that it will push ahead with Cadbury's plans to close the Somerdale manufacturing facility in Keynsham, near Bristol. Cadbury had planned to close the Somerdale site and move production to Poland in a bid to cut costs. However, prior to Kraft's takeover of the UK confectioner, it indicated that it hoped to keep Somerdale open. Nevertheless, a week after securing shareholder approval for its acquisition, Kraft said that “extensive talks” with “senior management” ...
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Nestle, the world's biggest food group, said Saturday it will invest 5 billion pesos ($390 million) in Mexico over the next three years to increase coffee processing capacity, part of a $1 billion expansion plan.

"The majority of these 5 billion pesos will be invested in the Nescafe instant coffee processing plant," Nestle said in a statement, adding that the investment would increase capacity by 40 percent at the factory in Toluca near Mexico City.

Mexico, a major world coffee producer, has ...

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The Hershey Company today announced sales and earnings for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2009. Consolidated net sales were $1,407,336,000 compared with $1,377,380,000 for the fourth quarter of 2008. Reported net income for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $126,779,000 or $0.55 per share-diluted, compared with $82,155,000 or $0.36 per share-diluted for the comparable period of 2008.
For the full year 2009, consolidated net sales were $5,298,668,000 compared with $5,132,768,000 in 2008, a...

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Kellogg Company today announced solid operating profit growth for the full-year and fourth quarter 2009.Reported earnings for full-year 2009 were $1.2 billion, or $3.16 per diluted share, an increase of 6 percent from full-year 2008 of $1.1 billion, or $2.99 per diluted share which included a 53rd week in the fourth quarter of 2008. On a currency neutral basis, full-year 2009 earnings per share grew 13 percent.  Reported earnings in the fourth quarter of 2009 were $176 million, or $0.46 per d...

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Sara Lee Corp.  reported monday strong operating income growth for the second quarter of fiscal 2010, driven by significant improvement in operating segment income across the company, particularly in the North American Retail and International Beverage business segments, and lower corporate expenses. Net income also rose sharply, driven by higher income from continuing and discontinued operations, partially due to one-time tax benefits and lower charges for significant items. Net sales were u...
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Britain´s leading fine wines and spirits merchant, Berry Bros. & Rudd (BB&R), today announced that it has finalised an agreement under which it will sell the Cutty Sark blended Scotch whisky brand to The Edrington Group. Under the deal, BB&R will acquire The Glenrothes single malt brand from Edrington, which has signed long-term supply agreements to provide whisky fillings and stocks to BB&R. Edrington will retain ownership of The Glenrothes distillery.

The transaction will also involve Edri...

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Japanese beer makers Kirin Holdings and Suntory on Monday scrapped a plan to create one of the world's largest food and beverage makers, failing to agree on how much say Suntory would have in the merged firm and sending Kirin's shares down 8 percent.
 
The talks were never seen as a done deal, with much of the focus on how Kirin would value privately held Suntory and how large a stake Suntory's founding family would take in the merged company, which would have had annual sales of $40 billion.S...

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Unilever has announced underlying sales growth of 3.5% for 2009, but blamed “a challenging environment” for a slump in profits.Price cuts helped drive volume growth of 2.3% over the year, accelerating in the fourth quarter to 5%. The volume increase was seen across most of its key categories.But profits before tax fell significantly from €7bn to €4.9bn, while total sales were down 1.7% to €39.8bn. Advertising and promotional spend increased by 80bps across the year. Unilever also sa...
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The long story  between Kraft and Cadbury has ended with a victory of Kraft. The shareholders of Cadbury have approved the acquision offer made by Kraft with a 70% majority. Todd Stitzer is stepping down as chief executive of Cadbury in the wake of shaqreholders' vote  to accept Kraft Foods’ takeover bid. Joining him on the way out will be chairman Roger Carr and chief financial officer Andrew Bonfield. Their departure dates have yet to be set.While Stitzer and Carr were certain to leave fo...
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Due to a technical problem for almost 2 weeks I could not write my blog. Sorry for this.

At the end of  January I was away for visiting ISM (Internationale Sussware Messe) in Cologne, the greatest show of sweet industry. Let me brief you about this year's ISM.

The most important thing maybe is the fact that many of the major  confectionery companies were not present in ISM! Mars/Wrigley, Cadbury, Nestlé, Perfetti Van Melle, Haribo were all missing. This ofcourse brings the question; does it r...
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