Food Industry Archive

The people who once frequented Starbucks, but don’t any more either to avoid the expense or because their nearest outlet was one of the 600 the chain has recently closed have to get their fix somewhere. Many are opting to drink more coffee at home or at work, and because of that, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is flourishing. As Zack’s, an investment site, points out today, Green...

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Perhaps counterintuitively, Nelson Peltz’s decision to sell his stake in Starbucks could be seen as a vote of confidence in the struggling coffee chain’s management. Investors seem to think so – they’ve sent Starbucks’ shares way up as of midday Thursday. Peltz, through his Trian Fund Management, is an “activist investor” with a particular interest in...

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Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go: the struggling Uno Chicago Grill chain does not serve Chicago pizza. Indeed, no deep-dish pizza is genuine Chicago pizza, though most people in the country — and even many in Chicago — believe it is. Real Chicago pizza is delivered from neighborhood joints that also serve Italian beef and sausage sandwiches. It is thin crust, and...

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Has InBev gone native already? In what seems like an abomination, the Belgian brewer that recently inked a deal to acquire Anheuser Busch is planning a low-cal — and worse, reduced-alcohol — version of Stella Artois, its fine, pilsner-ish lager. The whole branding campaign behind Stella is upscale and focused on quality - you’ve seen the short films in movie theaters. The...

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The food analysts at Credit Suisse issued a note on Monday observing that commodity funds are fleeing from “the grain complex” thanks to, among other things, the burgeoning dollar and falling oil prices. The funds’ withdrawals are driving prices down, just as their rabid investments had driven prices up earlier in the year, the analysts argue. But don’t expect meat and...

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If a grocer’s store brand is doing well, why not farm it out to competitors? Everybody wins: the grocer, obviously, by expanding its market; and the competitors, which can fill in the cracks of its own private-label product lines, or introduce store brands if they don’t have them. That’s what Safeway has in mind as it plans to roll out its O Organics and Eating Right products...

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It’s somewhat surprising that Wal-Mart’s Marketside, its planned chain of small grocery stores, hasn’t gotten more coverage. That could be because, until now, nobody knew just how extensive the retail giant’s plans are – potentially, at least. The Financial Times reported Thursday that the chain, to launch this fall, could grow to include up to 1,500 stores and $10...

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No shock here: Archer Daniels Midland has just wrapped up a great year. But the year was capped by a not-so-great fourth quarter. With grain prices soaring through the year, ADM, the world’s largest grain processor, couldn’t help but clean up. But recent weakness among grains has taken its toll. “With the commodity prices falling every day, people don’t want to buy and...

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John Stewart reviews recent news items about the restaurant industry. This one is must-watch.

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In Michael Pollan’s latest book “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” he advises us (perhaps counterintuitively) to avoid foods that carry health claims on their packages. You have to read the book to fully understand this, but in a nutshell, Pollan argues that health claims are usually a sign that a food has been heavily processed, or that nutrients have been...

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