Ahold has sold another non-core business as part of its bid to
focus on food retailing. The Golden Gallon fuel and convenience
store chain in the US is the latest divestment, with North
Carolina-based The Pantry acquiring the 138-store...
A new alliance, the first of its kind in Denmark, aims to focus on
new technologies to lead to faster and more targeted production and
marketing of new products for the dairy industry. Danish enzyme
company Novozymes will join up...
Putting the pressure on its licensee MD Foods to bring tagatose to
the marketplace may well have worked for the low cal sweetener
patent holder Spherix international with the news this week that
7-Eleven has introduced a new drink...
Tesco and Sainsbury could seriously damage their credit ratings if
they were to proceed with a debt-funded acquisition of Safeway,
ratings agency Standard & Poor's has warned. Tesco is already
overstretched after expanding...
Better communication between retailers and their suppliers about
the long-term weather forecast will help ensure that supermarket
shelves are well stocked with the appropriate products - and help
farmers prepare for extreme weather...
Despite a reduction in sugar beet acreage - a move designed to cut
the amount of sugar on the world market - Danisco expects this
year's harvest to be above average due to 'exceptionally favourable
weather conditions in...
Australia's largest food and ingredients company Burns Philp &
Co saw net profit rise by 16 per cent to A$170.0 million (€100m)
for the fiscal year ended June 30 but earnings were impacted by
acquisitions - not least Australia's...
German retail and wholesale group Metro has opened its first cash
& carry outlet in Ukraine as part of its ongoing expansion into
eastern Europe. The store in Kiev is likely to be one of three in
the capital and seven in the country...
Strong results across a range of business units helped US
agribusiness Cargill post a stable set of figures for the
fourth-quarter of 2003. Food ingredients operations in Europe,
Latin America and North America claim a particularly...
Swiss flavours and fragrance company Givaudan saw operating profit
for the first half of 2003 knocked by lower gross margins and a
rise in pension charges.
Ambitious ingredients company CP Kelco will up funding in the Far
East in a bid to reinforce its growing carrageenan business. "We
are taking steps to organise our supply chain to add flexibility to
our operations," said...
Cognis, the nutritional ingredients company, has signed an
agreement with Norwegian group Natural giving it the exclusive
licence to market and manufacturer Natural's Tonalin CLA product.
German pharmaceuticals and ingredients group Boehringer Ingelheim
has reported a successful first half-year, with sales in the first
six months of 2002 rising 21 per cent on the previous year to €3.7
billion and an operating income...
Danish enzymes company Novozymes continues on a high this year,
despite a slight fall in food enzyme sales for the quarter,
resulting in an overall boost to 13 per cent for its forecast for
net profit increase for the full year.
German speciality chemicals company Degussa sees a downturn in
profits and sales as it fails to realise the potential of its
restructured activities in the current economic climate.
Hypermarkets account for the biggest share of retail revenues in
Poland, despite the fact that there are relatively few stores. But
while the format remains popular, smaller outlets, such as
supermarkets and discount stores, are likely...
Sustainability leaders substantially outperform industry
competitors by up to 23 per cent and are set to continue to do so,
suggests a recent report on the global food retail industry by
Innovest Strategic Value Advisors.
Both Brazil and Argentina continue to increase their production and
export figures this year, reports the American Soybean Association,
news which falls in line with forecasts that South America will
become the world's main soybean...
A last minute move by one of the potentials in the Safeway bidding
race has led the UK competition body to delay its recommendations,
which were to be handed to the Government today.
Russia's largest brewer, Baltika Brewery, has said that it expects
beer exports to Germany this year to far exceed the 1.25 million
litres that it exported to the country in 2002.
The UK retailing industry is bracing itself for perhaps the biggest
event of the year, as it awaits the results of the Competition
Commission's report on who can bid for Safeway. The decision is
likely to reshape Britain's...
Agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland yesterday announced it
will increase its liquid sorbitol capacity at its Decatur plant in
the US by 60 per cent by the end of 2003 in order to meet increased
demand.
Petrol station shops are becoming a progressively more important
outlet within a growing and increasingly consolidated convenience
retail market, according to the latest report from Datamonitor.
A robust second quarter for flavour and fragrances multinational
Frutarom, announcing a rise for both sales and profits and
completion of its acquisition of the Swiss natural extracts company
Emil Flachsmann.
Dutch-based health and food ingredients company Acatris Group is
set to expand its sales network for health ingredients in the UK.
In a statement this week, the company claimed that the UK is among
the top three countries in Europe...
With virtually all of the world's new soybean production expected
to come from increased plantings in South America over the next
five to ten years, organisers of an international conference on
soyfoods have chosen Brazil...
The UK Consumers' Association (CA)'s honest food labelling campaign
has revealed a range of confusing, and sometimes misleading labels
on summer food products. The organisation claims that many food
manufacturers have made...
Doughnut maker and retailer Krispy Kreme has finally unveiled the
location of its first European outlet - and it has set its sights
high indeed. The outlet will open in October in the famous London
department store Harrods - but will...
US department of agriculture sugar-market economist John Love has
predicted that producer prices for sugar for 2002/03 will be 5 per
cent higher than last year's.
Lingering consumer suspicion of synthetic colours, coupled with the
rising preference for all-natural products, is driving uptake of
natural food colours within Australia and New Zealand, report
market analysts Frost & Sullivan....
The US Food and Drug Administration has given the Procter &
Gamble fat replacer olestra the all-clear, after new scientific
evidence found there was no need to warn consumers of side effects.
A new report suggests that the pressure on Europe's food supply
chain could soon become too great for it to bear, leaving the
continent facing severe ecological problems such as
desertification.
Carrefour's stores in nine of Spain's autonomous regions have been
accused of selling a range of wine, beer and spirits at less than
cost price, a practice which is illegal under Spanish competition
rules.
Continuing uncertainty and senior management turmoil at cranberry
supplier Ocean Spray has led Moody's to downgrade the firm's
short-term and preferred stock ratings, with further downgrade
possible in the near future.
Ahold has completed the sale of its Chilean unit Santa Isabel to
local retailer Cencosud for $77m, much-needed cash at a time when
the Dutch group is facing reduced profits as a result of its
accounting irregularities.
Belgian retailer Delhaize is improving slowly, but its business
continues to be affected by the weakening of the US dollar against
the euro. Nonetheless, the company is hopeful of a
better-than-expected performance for the year as...
The European Commission on Friday approved plans by US company
Archer Daniels Midland to purchase food giant Unilever's edible oil
refining subsidiary VDBO.
As the popularity of soy products gains pace Israeli soy
ingredients company Solbar Plant Extracts announced this week that
it has launched a new, highly soluble soy isoflavone for functional
beverages, meal replacement and supplement...
Despite emergency measures by the EU last month to block imports of
chilli powder contaminated with the red dye Sudan I, the UK food
safety agency has uncovered this potential carcionogen in food
products.
UK sweeteners and starch group Tate & Lyle has completed the
sale of its monosodium glutamate (MSG) production unit in France to
Japanese seasonings company Ajinomoto.
A new organic programme in the US has lifted sales of organic food
and drink while western Europe saw growth slowing down on 2002
figures. New report predicts drop in growth for industrialised
world, but acceleration in developing...
Metro, the German retail group, has reported sales growth in the
first six months of the year and is predicting further gains for
the full-year. Signs, perhaps, that the German recovery may be on
the way?
Irish dairy group Glanbia has reached a settlement with the Irish
competition authority over allegations concerning the fixing of the
retail price of milk.
Sainsbury has been dealt a double blow this week, with the news
that its hostile bid for 171 Somerfield stores is likely to come a
cropper at the hands of the regulators followed by the even more
devastating evidence that it has been...
One century on and millions of ice cream tubs later the US 'food
police' are out in force calling on ice cream retailers to tell the
full story about saturated fat and calorific content.
Swiss Delice, the confectionery manufacturing arm of Swiss group
Migros, is to fast track sales of its products to China after a
successful launch last year in Hong Kong.
