Food Industry Archive

Here’s the most provocative part of the Associated Press account of the “beer drinkers’ lawsuit” seeking to block the merger of InBev and Anheuser Busch: a lawyer in the case “declined to say Wednesday who was funding the lawsuit,” according to the AP. Quite obviously, this is not really a fight for the right of the 10 unnamed plaintiffs to drink cheap beer,...

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M&A volume in the food industry has doubled in the past two years, with 2,000 transactions in 2007, according to research recently released by Grant Thornton Corporate Finance. This consolidation has been especially active in the snack-food industry, with 125 mergers and acquisitions between 2005 and 2007. Brian Basil, a GTCF director, expects the trend to continue. “M&A activity will...

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Someone from Dow Jones newswires showed up at Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant’s speech during a conference by the Society of American Business Editors on Tuesday, and came away with the headline “Monsanto CEO: Water Debate Will ‘Dwarf’ Food vs. Fuel.” Scary! And quite possibly true, though it should be borne in mind that Monsanto sells seeds that have been genetically...

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McDonald’s August comparable sales, released on Tuesday, showed 8.5 percent growth globally and 4.5 percent growth in the United States. Not bad for a downturn, but the overall sales increased was only .04 percent higher than in the same period last year. Maybe more troubling is the drop in U.S. growth. In August 2007, McDonald’s sales grew by 7.4 percent; that’s a nearly 40...

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In a quick look at the ongoing struggles of Mrs. Fields Famous Brands, a glimmer of hope came out of bankruptcy court late last month. According to Eric Schroeder of foodbusinessnews.net, the Salt Lake City company that makes those scrumptious cookies and owns the yogurt chain, TCBY, has been approved for all its first round of motions. So basically it can continue to pay employees and continue...

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Last month, I noted how quickly sales tend to bounce back after a food recall. As bad as a sales dip can be, once the danger is passed, consumers tend to return in fairly short order. Some recent research seems to support that view. According to The Nielsen Co., sales of packaged salads have returned to where they were before the widespread E. coli, Total sales in the United States of precut...

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The chocolate business is not immune from the pressures affecting the rest of the food sector: input costs, way up; demand, way down. Food Business News reports that the industry is dealing with “uncertain supply prospects, high prices and weaker demand.” Candy makers are passing costs along to consumers, or trying to. In some cases (again mirroring others in the packaged-food...

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Last week as I was getting on the elevator on my way out of Whole Foods (I know, I know, I’m crazy to shop there), three other people got on with me. Only one, like me, had a cart, which in her case held just one small bag, a 12-pack of bottled water, and a sack of something that smelled really good – fresh roasted chicken, I thought. The other two had nothing. I jokingly asked if they...

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The lure of the fast-growing Chinese consumer market is strong. So strong that Coca Cola is willing to bet billions of dollars and years of having its earnings dragged down on the uncertain promise that its proposed $2.4 billion purchase of, Huiyuan Juice Group, the country’s biggest juicemaker, will pay off. Everything else being equal, it will pay off big time. Huiyuan has nearly half...

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This must be a frustrating time for Sara Lee. Its three-year turnaround plan is working, and both sales and market share are on the rise. But so are costs, and that is forcing executives to whittle down product lines and make other cost-cutting moves they likely would rather not make. One big area of cost-cutting is in marketing and promotions. The decrease in ad spending, announced in June,...

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