Food Industry Archive

Ever since the financial crisis hit last month, people have been wondering about the InBev-Anheuser Busch merger. Will it go through? Yes, it almost certainly will. The main reason is that the $52 billion deal has solid financing behind it. And as the Dow Jones news service pointed out on Thursday, “selling beer is a solid business, even during a recession.” Nevertheless, Dow Jones...

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Like several other food producers this earnings season, Chiquita reported Thursday that higher retail prices and falling costs have improved its third-quarter results. The question is, how long will suppliers be able to maintain their high prices, which they have been jacking up for months, citing high commodity costs? Grains, soybeans and fuel have all fallen big time from their mid-summer...

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As commodity prices rose, Pilgrim’s Pride got hurt. The chicken processor got hurt again as commodity prices fell, because it lost money on hedging against further rises. As a result of that, and of problems in the marketplace and its heavy debt load, some analysts are saying the company is in danger of going bankrupt. On Tuesday, the company’s shares fell by more than 34 percent,...

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From the counterintuitive files: the research firm Mintel says children and teenagers are a lot more concerned about nutrition than we might think. According to Food Business News, 42 percent of them “go for foods that provide more energy and over a third purposefully eat foods rich in vitamins and nutrients.” And a quarter of them try to avoid fat to some degree, while just over a...

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Earlier this month, Pizza Hut became the first company not just to let people order pizza online, but to do so without having to leave Facebook. Numerous bloggers have complained snarkily that the application offers nothing new — it’s basically just the online delivery site redesigned for Facebook, only now it can spam your friends when you order a pizza. Pizza Hut responded quickly...

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As pressure grows on the FDA to toughen up its rules on nutritional labeling, food makers are responding with a slew of new and competing labeling schemes, each claiming to be the definitive version of what nutrition labeling should be. Mars announced last week that it will bring the European “Guideline Daily Allowance” model to the U.S. for the first time. The new...

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How quickly things can change. Just months ago, Bunge’s prospects looked so rosy that the grain and fertilizer company went on a buying spree. It’s biggest purchase, not yet approved, is of Corn Products International. Since June, when that deal was announced, prices of corn and soybeans have been cut in half, and the credit crisis has made capital less accessible to farmers (or at...

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New president for Wrigley — Just two weeks after Mars purchased the company, Wrigley’s President and CEO William Perez is on his way out. Effective immediately, Dushan “Duke” Petrovich will step in as president, but without the title of CEO. Mars offered no reasons for the replacement. [Source: Chicago Tribune] Kraft drops coffee prices — Maxwell House and Yuban...

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In a move that Forbes says could “change the business of cooling,” Ben & Jerry’s is planning to use the country’s first hydroflourocarbon-free freezers. HFCs are among the worst greenhouse gases. The freezers “are a rare example of a global warming solution that actually saves money,” according to Forbes, which reports that they are about 10 percent more...

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RIP Zima — MillerCoors announced Monday that it’s discontinuing the malt liquor beverage Zima. Though the company will sell remaining inventories through December, the Wikipedia entry already refers to Zima in the past tense. [Source: AP] Cadbury becomes Olympic sponsor — The world’s biggest candy maker became an official sponsor of the 2012 Olympics in London, at a cost...

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