Innovation moves up board
Tetra Pak claims packaging first
P&G to offer Fair Trade coffee
A-maize-ing plastic for pasta packs

Innovation

Innovation moves up board

Innovation has always been high on the agenda in many businesses, but different people are taking an interest.

Tim Jones, founding partner of UK-based innovation consultancy Innovaro, says growing concern over the ability of a company to innovate is changing how and where innovation occurs, where its focus lies, and more specifically, how it is structured.

“The traditional foci for innovation have been marketing and R&D. However several leading companies have begun to initiate, drive and even manage innovation from a more corporate perspective,” he says.

Companies such as Nokia, Vodafone, Marks & Spencer and HBOS are trying to encourage and exploit approaches that address multiple issues more effectively. These new, more integrated, innovation programmes seek to deliver more bang for the buck, he says.

This is shifting control of innovation activities from specifically marketing and/or R&D to corporate. This means the chief executive, the chief strategy officer and finance director are all becoming players in some of the key innovation decisions.

This is also changing the scale, scope and manner by which innovation is seen, how it is positioned and even also how it is delivered. New measures now define innovation work; some firms target the percentage of organic sales growth from genuinely new products.

“Many of us will have to find new ways to say how, where and when the results will meet the expectations, and then how to manage innovation programmes to meet them,” Jones says.

Packaging

Tetra Pak claims packaging first

Swedish packaging supergroup Tetra Pak claims to have packaged the US’s first long-life hollandaise sauce and crème brulee.

The products, for Chef Creations, the wholesale division of US-based Culinary Concepts, are packed in 32oz (946ml) Tetra Brik aseptic cartons. They are aimed at saving preparation time and effort in restaurants and other foodservice outlets, many of which do not offer the foods because of the hassle factor and food safety issues.

Tetra Pak's aseptic technology, widely used for long-life milk, egg and juice products, gives foods a shelf-life of up to 10 months without refrigeration or preservatives, says Tetra Pak foodservice director Chris Fabbri.

Chef Creations worked with Tetra Pak's R&D people at its pilot plant in Denton, TX to develop the products. Logistics firm Sysco will distribute them to restaurants and operations in Florida and the southeastern US before going nationwide.

Fair trade

P&G to offer Fair Trade coffee

US consumer products giant Procter & Gamble is to launch a Fair Trade-branded coffee as part of its up-market Millstone brand. The move is expected to persuade P&G competitors Nestlé and Kraft Foods to follow suit.

P&G’s decision gives a huge boost, if not legitimacy, to the Fair Trade movement, which pushes for better wages and working conditions for farmers and workers in developing countries.

The Fair Trade movement is part of a wider push for corporate responsibility in offsetting some of the unfair exploitation that has accompanied globalisation. But the trade is tiny compared to the total market. The Fair Trade Federation reports that North American and Pacific Rim fair trade sales in 2002 were just $215m, but that was up 37% on the year before. USA Today reports the only part of the US’s $19.2bn coffee industry that isn't stagnant is specialty coffee, worth $8.4bn. Of that Fair Trade sales are worth just $100m, but is the fastest-growing niche.

Many high street retailers and global brand owners are discovering that social consciousness is good business. Very often the products command premium prices in shops.

But critics charge that not all the premium from Fair Trade sales flows back to the producers. The producer price of coffee has halved in three years and that for tea has halved since the 1970s. The falls have pushed small growers into severe hardship. But the retail price of tea and coffee has risen steadily in most developed countries.

The critics say shoppers volunteer to pay the higher price in the belief that the premium goes back to the producers. But in fact retailers and middlemen retain most of the premium to boost profit margins shaved by competition and negotiating power of in particular, Wal-Mart.

Packaging

A-maize-ing plastic for pasta packs

Italy's leading organic pasta manufacturer has announced that it will now package its fresh organic pasta in containers made from Cargill Dow’s maize-based, plastic-like material, NatureWorks PLA.

Biorigin is selling its fresh ravioli, tortelloni and cappelletti in clear containers and film made from the biodegradable material. Biorigin quality manager Dario Muschio says "We view the package as an integral part of our product, and with NatureWorks PLA, we can offer a complete 'natural-in-natural' solution."

The fresh pasta is first packed in a clear, rigid tray and then heat-sealed with a film overlay. Biorigin worked with food packaging manufacturers Amprica and Treofan to develop the packaging. 

Cargill Dow claims NatureWorks PLA is the first commercially viable packaging material made from an annually renewable resource that performs equal to or better than traditional packaging made from fossil fuels. The technology used to produce NatureWorks PLA breaks down plant starches in the corn into natural plant sugars. The carbon and other elements in these natural sugars are drawn off through a simple process of fermentation and separation and used to make plastic, called polylactide (PLA).

“It is the first renewable resource-based polymer to be used in large-scale commercial packaging applications, such as films, rigid containers, and disposable serviceware, such as cups, bowls, plates and cutlery,” the company says.