Bill Johnson, chief executive of HJ Heinz, the American consumer food group, announced on June 14 that he was not ready to abandon its tuna business, which analysts had seen as a possible disposal candidate because of a run of poor results, reports the Financial Times. He made these comments as Heinz reported a fourth quarter net loss of $171m, largely due to charges for restructuring its problematic tuna and pet food operations. According to Mr. Johnson, Heinz was very unlikely to commit much capital spending to tuna or pet food in the coming year. However, he added: "We still feel it's too early to give up on tuna." Recently, Heinz introduced new pouch packaging and "Lunch To Go" snacks for its Starkist tuna brand. Mr. Johnson said: "I want to see pouches working. I'm going to take a lot of [market] share points." According to Mr. Johnson, Heinz will keep on pursuing its strategy of bolt-on acquisitions. The fourth-quarter results included a $299m charge for the tuna and pet food reorganisation announced last March, and Heinz said another $15m in charges would come in the first quarter. Source: Financial Times
