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Convenience and home cooking are hot
Commercial GM crop “co-existence” impossible
Link food safety to public health goals – IM
People
Kroger goes natural and organic
Minute Maid gets calcium, vitamin D boost
Ahold sells Indonesian operation for E12m
P&G improves Wella offer, seeks other targets
McDonald's reverses loss
Bunge has record 1Q, but warns of trouble
Short arms and shallow pockets
Trends
Convenience and home cooking are
hot
Consumers are eating more meals at
home and ordering fewer take-out meals, but still want convenience,
suggests Research just out from the US Institute of Food Technologists.
The top four attributes of foods
that consumers say they would try are Ready-to-eat, Heat-and-eat,
Packaged for on-the-go, and No utensils required.
Consumers are also more concerned
about how what they eat affects their health, researchers say. Last year
eight out of ten tried to prevent a medical condition through food
purchases, up 10 percent. Heart disease and cancer top their worries.
The slow economy may drive price
into third place when choosing shops, but a clean, neat store and high
quality fruit and vegetables are still tops.
"Fresh" is the most
desired label claim, and interest in fat, sugar, calories and dietary
fibre is high. Sales of no-, low-, less than-, and reduced- foods and
beverages topped $53 billion in 2002.
Americans are not giving up their
traditional food, but Chinese, Italian and Mexican/Tex-Mex are gaining.
Last year, the popularity of ethnic foods in the household climbed in
eight of nine categories.
Sales of nutrition bars are
expected to grow by $1 billion to $2.4 billion by 2006. Sports and energy
drink sales neared $3 billion last year, up 16 percent, and sports
supplements sales climbed eight percent to nearly $2 billion.
Organic sales grew nearly 20
percent last year to $9.7 billion. That's about half the amount spent on
salted snacks ($18.8 billion), and on fortified foods and beverages ($20
billion). Awareness of organic food is high, but penetration is stuck at
40 percent of households.
GM
Commercial GM crop
“co-existence” impossible
It would be impossible to prevent
commercial scale genetically modified (GM) crops from contaminating non-GM
crops.
This is the conclusion of a report
to the British government from GM advisors the Agriculture and Environment
Biotechnology Commission (AEBC), obtained by Friends of the Earth.
It reveals that if GM crops are
grown commercially in the UK, it would be difficult and in some places
impossible to guarantee that any British food is GM-free.
The UK government is expected to
make a decision on the future commercialisation of GM crops within the
next year.
The AEBC also predicts that
commercial farming of GM crops means that food products will breach the
present 0.1 percent threshold for labelling products as containing GM
materials.
Permitting commercial production
will also counter the government’s attempts to encourage organic
farming.
Food safety
Link food safety to public health
goals – IM
Food safety should relate to public
health goals, say the US Institute of Medicine and the National Research
Council of the National Academies in a new report sponsored by the US
Department of Agriculture and the Food & Drug Administration.
"Practical constraints in the
food inspection system have hampered the development of harmonised food
safety regulations," said Cameron Hackney, co-chair of the report
committee.
Current food safety criteria,
including performance standards for food producers, are there to protect
the public's health. With new technology, the criteria can now be clearly
related to specific public health objectives, the committee said.
But present tests do not
necessarily reflect the true potential for disease, they say.
“Testing for Salmonella bacteria
on beef carcasses, for instance, can indicate whether proper control and
other measures are being followed in a slaughterhouse, but people rarely
contract salmonellosis from eating beef. By contrast, even a small amount
of E. coli 0157:H7 in beef can cause severe illness, so efforts to detect
and eliminate this bacterium should be performed on meat before it is
ground, not just after, as current standards require.”
The report recommended closer
integration and information exchange between federal and local agencies,
as well as a centralised database of test results from the entire food
supply chain.
The committee also wants meat
packers to add labels warning of the dangers of undercooked meat, and to
ban all sales of raw milk and derivative products.
It would like all seafood and
shellfish to be tested, and says fish imports should follow the same or
equivalent safety practices required from domestic producers.
Copies of Scientific Criteria to
Ensure Safe Food will be available later this year from the National
Academies Press, T +1 202 334 3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at
http://www.nap.edu.
People
US packaging group MeadWestvaco has
announced the promotions of James Buzzard to president and Cynthia Niekamp
to senior vice president and chief financial officer. Daniel McIntyre
joins MeadWestvaco as vice president, communications.
Launches
Kroger goes natural and organic
US retailer The Kroger Co has
launched a 140-item range called Naturally Preferred, its own brand of
premium-quality natural and organic products in nearly 2,500 stores.
"Our 'Naturally Preferred'
brand creates value for our customers by offering a wide variety of
high-quality natural and organic products that are an affordable
alternative to more expensive national brands," said Kroger executive
vice president Don McGeorge.
The range includes baby food,
pastas, cereal, snacks, milk and soy items. Every Naturally Preferred item
carries a satisfaction guarantee to a full refund or to swop it for their
preferred national brand.
McGeorge said customers could
expect to see Kroger expand the brand across more categories.
"Naturally Preferred is our ultimate loyalty program because
customers can buy this premium brand only in our stores," he said.
Minute Maid gets calcium, vitamin
D boost
Coca-Cola subsidiary Minute Maid
has brought out a calcium and vitamin D-enriched orange juice to
capitalise on Osteoporosis Prevention Month in May. The fortified juices
have the same amount of calcium and vitamin D as a serving of vitamin
D-fortified milk.
Dr Michael Holick, director of the
Bone Healthcare Clinic at Boston University Medical Centre, said
"Without incorporating both into the diet, people are short-changing
themselves."
M&A
Ahold sells Indonesian operation
for E12m
Embattled Dutch retailer Ahold is
to sell its Indonesian operation to food retailer PT Hero Supermarket for
approximately 12 million euros. The price excludes proceeds from the sale
of store inventory. Hero is listed on the Jakarta stock exchange and has
200 outlets throughout Indonesia.
Ahold will sell 22 stores plus one
under construction, and two distribution centres. Some 1,600 staff may
lose their jobs.
Ahold entered the Indonesian market
through a technical service agreement with the PSP group in 1996. That
agreement ended in 2002 and Ahold Tops Indonesia became a wholly owned
subsidiary. Unaudited net sales in 2002 were about 37 million employs
approximately 1,600 people in Indonesia.
P&G improves
Wella offer,
seeks other targets
Following wide-spread criticism
consumer goods firm Procter & Gamble raised its offer for German hair
care group Wella by 4.50 euros a share to 65 euros and hinted it is
looking for more acquisitions in Germany.
The new offer is still way below
the 92.25 euros a share that the company paid the Ströher family in March
for its 77.6 percent stake in Wella. If accepted, the new offer will raise
the total price to P&G to €6.6 billion.
Nivea maker Beiersdorf may be next
on P&G’s shopping list. Allianz, which owns 44 percent of the skin
care firm, last year retained Goldman Sachs to find a buyer for its stake.
Results
McDonald's reverses loss
A weak dollar helped US fast food
chain McDonald's to a seven percent gain in earnings per share for the
quarter of 2003, despite lower comparable unit sales.
Chairman Jim Cantalupo said "I
certainly am not satisfied with our results this quarter. Yet, I am
confident we are getting the business back on track (following the first
annual loss last year). We are moving ahead with plans to revitalize
McDonald's business everywhere. And we've made a strategic shift to
concentrate on building sales at existing restaurants rather than adding
new ones."
Over the coming 12 to 18 months,
Cantalupo wants annual sales growth of three to five percent, operating
income growth of six to seven percent, and return on incremental invested
capital in the high teens.
Bunge has record 1Q, but warns of
trouble
US agribusiness Bunge reported
record first quarter 2003 net income of $40 million, or $0.40 per share,
compared to net income of $13 million, or $0.15 per share, in the same
quarter of 2002. The results include Cereol, which was acquired in October
2002, and were driven by better results in South America.
Bunge chairman Alberto Weisser said
" Good performances by our South American agribusiness and
international marketing operations offset the difficult oilseed processing
margin environment in North America. Yesterday we announced the idling of
our oilseed processing facility in Marion, Ohio. We previously announced
idling of the facility at Cairo, Illinois. We believe Bunge is acting
prudently by reducing capacity in the face of a difficult market.”
Venture
capital
Short arms and shallow pockets
Venture capitalists are still being
very choosy, according to the latest market survey by Ernst & Young/VentureOne.
Quarterly venture investment
dropped below $4 billion for the first time in five years, they say. Just
404 deals attracted $3.4 billion in the first quarter of 2003, declines of
12 percent and 21percent, respectively, from the previous quarter.
The moderate drop in deal flow
combined with the big decline in dollars pushed the overall median deal to
$6 million, down from $6.6 million in 4Q02. This reflects increased risk
aversion on the part of venture capitalists and a more ascetic
company-building mode, they said.
E&Y’s Don Williams said
"The first factor that cannot be quantified is the impact that world
events and the Iraqi conflict had on possible investments. Also, the first
quarter is often when many fund partners deal with year end matters.
Further, venture investment faced ongoing lack of liquidity from both IPOs
and mergers, and many funds continue to wrestle with earlier
underperforming investments."
While most sectors lost ground, a
couple of information technology segments had a good quarter. Healthcare
transactions constituted only 20 percent of total deal flow. |
