Caffe Nero has given up its bid to take over rival coffee bar
operator Coffee Republic after its latest offer was once again
rejected. But the company said it would wait and see how Coffee
Republic planned to improve shareholder value...
Pepsi-Cola earlier this week announced plans to revamp its
packaging, and so it came as no surprise yesterday when arch rival
Coca-Cola unveiled changes to its diet and light brands.
The new commissioner for the US Food and Drug Administration, Dr
Mark McClellan, this week indicated his support for reviewing
current rules on health claims on food labels.
Dutch food retail group Ahold - whose exemplary business
performance of the last few years has become decidedly tarnished in
recent months - has announced it is to sell its Netherlands-based
health store chain De Tuinen to Holland...
A five-fold increase in the number of daily orders has prompted
Carrefour to invest in new facilities for its home delivery
business in Spain. But the unit is yet to make a profit, and
persuading consumers outside of Madrid to buy...
Quaker has introduced its low-fat snack brand Snack-a-Jacks to
Spain after a highly successful launch in the UK. The rice- and
corn-based products are touted as a healthy alternative to other
snacks which can be eaten at any time...
Food manufacturers and retailers must prepare the ground for the
arrival of some of the toughest GMO legislation in the world when
environment ministers in the European Union agreed on Monday to
comprehensive new rules.
"HACCP is nothing without trainers," declared Dagmar Engel, HACCP
trainer and consultant from Germany, at the recentInternational
Food Safety Focus conference, co-hosted by the Chartered Institute
of Environmental Health,...
The Australian competition watchdog accuses biscuit, bread and
cake-maker George Weston Foods, and one of its former senior
executives, of fixing the price of flour.
Food manufacturers took a further battering this week when the UK
Consumers' Association (CA) released new research, as part of its
Honest Labelling campaign, that suggests the public continues to be
misled by inadequate food...
'Impractical and unenforceable,' is how the European food
and drink association, the CIAA, last week condemned the new EU
legislation on the labelling of genetically modified organisms in
food. We spoke with Dr Geraldine...
Food companies figure prominently in a new survey of the most
admired companies in New Zealand. Out of the top ten places, five
were devoted to food businesses, the NFO/Porter Novelli report
reveals.
Trail blazers in e-commerce UK retailer Tesco announced this week
that for the first time ever booming online grocery sales have
reached more than £10 million (€15.6m) in a week - an encouraging
portent for yuletide spending.
Healthy eating may be a burgeoning market but consumers still need,
and will pay for, a treat, reveals a new report on the UK dairy
market from Datamonitor. The report finds that although the
consumption of fats and spreads will decrease,...
Euromonitor continues its analysis of UK retailers with a look this
week at media means and private brands. According to the report, UK
retailers Tesco and Sainsbury's are leveraging the trust consumers
have in their brands to...
A new product will be launched later today in the US which could
revamp the flagging gin market there. Wet by Beefeater is a
pear-infused premium gin which Allied Domecq hopes will give it a
major boost in the one area of the market...
Eating food cooked with oil need not be as unhealthy as it was
before, claims US agribusiness giant ADM. The company has just
launched a new cooking oil which it claims can help combat obesity,
a growing problem in the US and elswhere.
The pressure on margins caused by the demands of the retail sector
is nothing new, but a recent survey of prices charged by four
supermarket chains in Spain has prompted one producers' association
to warn of economic meltdown.
Is the phrase 'Have a Break' inextricably linked to the KitKat
confectionery brand? Well, no, at least according to the UK High
Court and US confectionery group Mars. But Nestle, the Swiss maker
of KitKat, is set to continue...
Expanding the European Union to 25 members will undoubtedly improve
the lot of the consumers in the 10 new countries, providing the
legislative framework is in place to encourage investment, claimed
Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy yesterday....
Just 83 bottles of The Balvenie Cask 191 single malt have been
produced, making this the smallest ever release under the brand. A
bottle of the whisky, which was laid down in 1952, will set you
back more than €9,000.
In the same week that the agriculture Council cleared the way for
tougher GM legislation in Europe, the European Commission has
announced a new proposal that seeks to harmonise the use of food
additives in flavourings in order to...
UK flavour and fragrance company Treatt saw turnover increase 11
per cent for the year with a slight dip in pre-tax profit from
£2.83m in 2001, to £2.77m for 2002, the company reports today.
Investment in the USA is paying off.
Hectic lifestyles and increased snacking are reducing the average
office worker to ‘desk-dining’, reveals a new report from Reuters
Business Insight that examines our current lunchtime eating habits.
While the French like a tipple...
Health concerns are leading to increasing consumption of bottled
and bulk water, so much so in fact that water is set to overtake
carbonates as the leading soft drink within just three years,
according to a new report by Canadean.
Novartis is delaying the planned sale of its health food and
slimming and sports nutrition businesses due to a lack of
attractive offers in the current weak economy, the company said
last week.
The premium private label products - both food and non-food - of
the leading UK retailers Tesco and Sainsbury are now worth more
than some of the brands they were originally created to emulate,
according to new data from Euromonitor.
UK whey processor Volac International intends to remove its investment in Pritchitt Foods, the Northern Ireland dairy-based food manufacturer, in a bid to focus on the agri-food sector and to expand its international business, the company announced this...
Barely two months after acquiring a majority stake in French oil
processor Cereol, US company Bunge said this week that its new unit
has sold French cooking oil company Lesieur in a bid to reduce its
debt load.
Polish soft drinks and mineral water producer Hoop has acquired its
counterpart Woda Grodziska, a move which it says will enable it to
step up its plans for expanding to the German market for the first
time.
Expanding its Plus discount supermarket fascia in Spain and
Portugal, and good performances from non-food subsidiaries KiK and
OBI, helped Germany's Tengelmann group to a solid increase in sales
for 2002, despite difficult economic...
The decision by the Navarra regional authorities to allow the term
'bio' to be used to describe non-organic dairy products has been
upheld by the local courts, the latest twist in the ongoing battle
between Spain and the...
Greencore Group, the Irish food ingredients and convenience food
company, this week reported a leap in operating profit together
with strong sales growth and a reduction in net debt for the year
ended 27 September 2002. Strong growth...
Starch ingredients company National Starch and Chemical, a
subsidiary of the chemical giant ICI Group, has moved further into
human nutrition with the announcement yesterday that it has
acquired the resistant starch business from...
New report confirms the growth of the non-dairy drinks sector as
the health and nutrition trend gains pace growth. Competition in
the burgeoning sector is set to increase, with the big players
turning to new product development as...
The average food ingredients company in the UK over the past three
years has seen sales decrease, a fall in profits, and contractions
rather than growth marking many areas of business. On a positive
note, the food ingredients industry...
Is our future a lonely one? According to market analysts
Datamonitor - yes. The company has just released a report that
predicts by 2005 Europe will have five million more single people,
eleven million fewer people living as part...
Danish vegetable oils and speciality fats company Aarhus Oliefabrik
this week reports a drop in consolidated operating income for the
third quarter as intense price competition and the impact of global
recession takes its toll.
Cognac Godet is pushing ahead with its exports to the potentially
huge Russian market following an agreement with its new distributor
there, Ladoga. The St Petersburg-based firm will now market three
Godet brands in major Russian...
Food preservation is a key issue for every food processor today. As
such, demand for isoascorbic acid, ascorbic acid and citric acid is
expected to reach €1.7bn by 2007. But with the market entry of
Chinese producers offering these...
SureBeam, the US-based food irradiation provider, has been awarded
a patent that increases the processing efficiency of its technology
and provides the ability to simultaneously process products in a
variety of package configurations.
A prepared curry, presented in minimal packaging, washed down by a
cup of white tea, followed by a citrus sorbet anyone? According to
the Global New Products Database of market analysts Mintel, these
are some of the trends we could...
Next January will see the launch of Fruity Smarties, a new
variation on the popular Nestle chocolate confectionery brand which
contains a fruity jelly produced by Haribo. Is this the start of a
beautiful relationship between the two...
Migros, the Swiss co-operative retailer, has refuted claims that it
is secretly preparing massive lay-offs, but confirms that not all
staff who leave the company will be replaced.
The world's leading chocolate producers have joined forces with
international labour organisations to promote ethical production
practices in West Africa, the main cocoa-growing area. Child labour
is top of the list of current...
Cargill Sweeteners North America forms marketing alliance with
sugar beet cooperative to sell and distribute its sugar products to
food and beverage manufacturers. Both companies hope the agreement
will lead to the development of...
Five former officials at the now-defunct Japanese company Snow
Brand Foods conspired to falsely label imported beef products as
domestic beef and swindled an industry body out of millions of yen
in a government buyback scheme, so...
Finlandia, the Finnish vodka produced by Altia, is already the
world's third-largest premium imported vodka brand, but it is set
to improve its position even further following the transfer of the
brand's marketing to Brown-Forman,...
Christmas in the UK is a time of tradition - turkey, mince pies,
carol singing... and huge amounts of over-spending. The latest
report from market analysts Mintel reveals that Britons are
likely to continue this last tradition this...
The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture has this week presented its
second annual food industry awards, recognising the achievements of
companies in the fields of export, innovation, technology, the
environment and rural development.
