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Crown to make cans in Tunisia
Firm promises to boost pester power
There’s something in the air…
Innovation to drive EU job creation summit
Tagatose maker hires new R&D head
How to finance that great idea
Packaging
Crown to make cans in Tunisia
US-based canmaker Crown Holdings to
go 50:50 with a partner, Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Bros, in a new beverage
can plant in Tunisia.
This is the fifth such project for
the partners. "Since 1979 we have worked successfully with them on four
joint venture operations in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and
Jordan," said Saud Algosaibi, managing director.
Located on a greenfield site in El
Agba, Tunis, the plant will produce 202 and 211 diameter beverage cans in
multiple sizes for the Maghreb region. The plant, which is expected to be
operational by mid-2005, will have an initial annual capacity of 635 million
cans. It will bring to 13 Crown's bevcan plants in nine European, Middle
Eastern and African countries.
Marketing
Firm promises to boost pester power
Just as regulators start getting to
grips with marketing programmes aimed at children, a market research firm
promises to help food and beverage firms target kids more effectively.
Global research firm AcuPOLL promises
to showcase its patented testing methodology at the upcoming Kid Power:
Food and Beverage Marketing Conference from 12 to 14 January in New
Orleans.
AcuPOLL will demonstrate how
precision research using taste tests with children and mothers provides
accurate recommendations for product development - the same business day.
AcuPOLL marketing director Bill Snyder says "By using validated
research methods before the product or campaign is launched, marketers can
be certain that they are comparing their product or idea to time-tested
results, and be confident that the insights will translate into business
growth.” It will also showcase how to make ideas better, rather than
simply stating if an idea will work or not, he added.
There’s
something in the air…
It’s well known that the scents of
fresh flowers, brewing coffee and just-baked bread makes us feel good and
put us in the mood to buy.
Now Canadian retailers are squirting
a synthetic human pheromone around shop floors. The stuff apparently makes
customers feel comfortable and secure and hence more likely to buy.
The pheromone was originally designed
for a big Las Vegas casino. Now Vancouver-based Enhanced Air Technologies
(EAT) has released its Commercaire (www.commercaire.com) pheromone for
general use.
Most species of insects and animals
produce pheromones naturally. The Vomeronasal Organ (VNO) within the nose
detects pheromones emitted by other people and sends response signals to the
hypothalamus, the brain's centre of emotions. Different pheromones trigger
different instinctive responses. EAT researchers have identified and
synthesised a proprietary pheromone that instils a sense of comfort and
security in humans.
"The compound doesn't cause
consumers to get into a spending frenzy so much as it causes them feel more
at ease in an environment and more receptive to sales messages," says
EAT director of development Nigel Malkin.
Consumers also return more often to
stores infused with Commercaire. "At a subconscious level, the sense of
comfort and security instilled by the compound gives consumers positive
memories of any environment that provides it. They're more likely to return
as a result," says Malkin.
Several casinos already use the
pheromone. Now demand is rising from retailers and restaurants, as well as
nightclubs and auto dealers, says Malkin. "Our clients are reporting
increases in their bottom lines across the board."
Commercaire is suspended in a gel
that evaporates into the air over time with the aid of EAT's air
distribution systems. Although Commercaire is odourless, EAT has produced
scented “private label” versions for four retailers.
Contracts
There’s something in the air…
US consumer good maker Proctor &
Gamble has chosen Sigma-Aldrich, a $1.2bn life science company, as the
preferred chemical supplier for its research and manufacturing facilities in
the US and Puerto Rico. The deal expands the companies' current relationship
whereby through a wholly-owned subsidiary, Vidwan Incorporated, it supplied
P&G with biochemical and organic chemical reagents and laboratory
solvents for product research, development, analysis, and manufacturing.
Sigma-Aldrich’s biochemical and
organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic
research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of
disease and chemical manufacturing.
Conferences
Innovation to drive EU job creation
summit
The third European business summit on
11 and 12 March, in Brussels, has the theme research and innovation - a
European
strategy for growth and jobs.
The European Commission, UNICE and
the Federation of enterprises in Belgium are joining forces to host the
event. It is being billed as “the most important dialogue in Brussels
between leading business people and European policy makers”.
At stake is whether the EU can meet
the objective it has set itself of becoming the most competitive economy by
2010, or whether the Lisbon goal is a “mere incantation with little or no
implementation”.
Speakers include EU Commissioner for
Research, Philippe Busquin, and Commissioner for Enterprise and the
Information Society, Erkki Liikanen, as well as European business leaders.
More details from http://www.ebsummit.org/index.html.
People
Tagatose maker hires new R&D
head
US-based maker of the tagatose
low-calorie artificial sweetner, Spherix, has hired Adams Confectionery’s
former global operations development director Dr Joseph Riemer as its
director of research and development.
Riemer has a PhD in food science and
technology from MIT, and has been in R&D, operations, and general
management. He will lead the BioSpherix division's effort to expand the
non-food market for its new low-calorie sweetener, tagatose, under the brand
name, Naturlose, into toothpaste, mouthwash, OTC drugs, and pharmaceuticals.
Finance
How to finance that great idea
Good ideas are a dime a dozen; it’s
only those that get the bucks that see the light of day.
Of all the challenges that face the
entrepreneur, getting the right type of finance at the right time is
probably the hardest to get right. A new book aims to correct that by giving
the view from the trenches on the other side of the front line.
Written by Deloitte & Touche
partner Richard Shanley, Financing Technology's Frontier: Decision-Making
Models for Investors and Advisors aims to explain the inner workings of
financing hi-tech and biotech industries from the point of view of
investment bankers and venture capitalists.
The book is aimed at investors and
senior executives of technology-based companies, as well as financial and
business advisors, and comes with an array of tools to help make decisions,
including lots of case studies.
Shanley covers raising capital,
forming strategic alliances, creating compensation plans, tax planning to
maximise cash flow, and preparing the board for an IPO, among others.
Poor returns and tighter regulations
make for a more cautious climate, says the author. Hence he also covers:
-
What venture capital firms are
saying about the future
-
The broader economic outlook for
technology
-
What makes a good match between
investor and investment
-
What business models encourage
investment
-
The criteria used by potential
investors to judge a company
-
How to finance increasingly
expensive research and development
-
Answers to the most frequently
asked questions about the investment process
He also looks at what bioparks and
academic medical centres are doing to encourage innovation and the impact of
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on the future of corporate governance.
Financing Technology's Frontier,
Richard Shanley, John Wiley & Sons, $79.95; hardcover; 257 pages. ISBN:
0-471-44432-4.
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