March 07, 2008

Operator News

Brinker International Inc. will focus on building restaurants overseas, reported The Associated Press. The company will target having 300 restaurants operating overseas by 2009, according to Guy Constant, vice president of operations analysis. The company's franchisees currently operate 172 locations in 24 countries. Meanwhile, the company will work on growing its same-store sales in the U.S. by offering value menu items like a bottomless express lunch that features all-you-can-eat salad, soup and chips, Constant said. The company will also cut back on the number of new restaurants it opens in 2008 and 2009. Full Story

Ruby Tuesday Inc. completed its re-branding, which included remodeling its restaurants and upgrading the menu for higher-income diners, reported The Associated Press. Full Story

Meanwhile, Ruby Tuesday, Inc. entered into a franchise agreement with RTSA Development Interests for the construction and operation of five restaurants in the San Antonio, TX area over the next four years. Full Story

Kahala-Cold Stone reached a deal with Cold Stone ApS to open 40 Cold Stone Creamery stores in Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden over the next five years, reported The Business Journal of Phoenix. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Retail News

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc.'s integration of the Pathmark stores it acquired is proceeding as planned, noted the company's CEO Christian Haub, reported The Associated Press. A&P likely will not need to replace equipment or fully renovate the stores, but it will put a renewed focus on value through in-store displays, noted Mr. Haub. The company will also introduce freshly cut vegetables and fruit to Pathmark's produce department. Full Story

BusinessWeek Online examines how Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.'s crossover strategy into the grocery food business is still working, as budget-minded consumers lured by inexpensive groceries make the retailer's stores their one-stop shopping choice. Ten years ago, grocery made up just 14% of Wal-Mart's total annual sales. Today, it accounts for about 32%, or $120 billion. Full Story

Ahold continues to reduce pricing and inventory levels at two of its U.S. chains, and as a result is gaining an edge in dealing with vendors, according to Lawrence Benjamin, president and chief operating officer of the U.S. operations. Since introducing a Value Improvement Program at Stop & Shop and Giant Foods in September 2006, Ahold discontinued approximately 25% of the items it used to carry while simultaneously adding new products, noted Mr. Bejamin, reported Supermarket News. Full Story

Food Lion introduced a new vendor program in an effort to become more customer-centric, according to chief operating officer Cathy Green. Manufacturers participating in the program will collaborate with the chain on segment-specific marketing and merchandising; store-cluster specific assortments; and banner-specific manufacturer programs, noted Ms. Green, reported Supermarket News. Full Story

Shell Oil Products U.S. transitioned ownership of 84 branded sites to PacWest Energy, LLC, a joint venture formed between Shell and Jacksons Food Stores, Inc. PacWest will re-brand the convenience stores at 62 of these locations to the Jacksons brand. Full Story

Whole Foods' non-profit Whole Planet Foundation created Whole Planet Foundation Supplier Alliance for Microcredit, a coalition of natural foods companies that will support microlending programs in developing world communities. Partners in the alliance include Allegro Coffee Company, Back to Nature, Balance Bar, and The Hain Celestial Group, along with others. Full Story

Canada's pharmacy chain Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. will debut a new line of organic products called Nativa in the second quarter of this year that will compete head-to-head with Loblaw's PC Organics line. The line will roll out with 170 packaged food items nationally. Some Shoppers outlets carry perishable grocery items such as salads and fresh fruit, although Nativa will, thus far, be restricted shelf-stable goods, according to National Post. Full Story

Supermarket chain Morrisons plans to stock only 100% British fresh beef. The retailer already buys only British fresh pork, lamb and poultry, reported Yorkshire Post Today. Full Story

Russia-based supermarket company X5 Retail Group NV named its hypermarkets Mercado as the chain expands in the country. The first Mercado outlet will open in the central Russian city of Lipetsk in June, reported Bloomberg.com. Full Story

Industry News

Faced with higher commodity costs, several major food manufacturers are tweaking their recipes to reduce their dependence on ingredients that have seen substantial price hikes recently, reported The Wall Street Journal. Sara Lee Corp, General Mills Inc. and Campbell Soup Co. are all making moves in this direction. Full Story (WSJ Subscription Required)

Information Resources, Inc. revealed the most successful new consumer packaged goods brands in its annual New Product Pacesetters report. Although taste, variety, and convenience continue to be important to consumers, health and wellness reign supreme for this year's Top 10 Food and Beverage Brands, which included: Campbell's Reduced Sodium Soup, Bird's Eye Steamfresh Frozen Vegetables, and Vault/Vault Zero Regular/Diet Soft Drinks. Full Story

Latest sales & earnings for food related companies (Updated Daily)

Goya Foods of Florida plans to invest $26 million to expand manufacturing and distribution in Miami-Dade County, FL, noted South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Full Story

The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. acquired the MaraNatha and SunSpire brands and their nut butter manufacturing facility in Ashland, OR from American Capital Strategies, Ltd. MaraNatha is a producer of natural and organic nut butters, while SunSpire is a maker of natural and organic chocolate products. Full Story

Barnie's Coffee & Tea Co.'s founder purchased the coffee retailer back from a private group that had been led by Miami banker Neil Leach. Barnie Philip Jones Jr. and his partner, Orlando developer Jim Pugh, want to get back to over 100 stores and $50 million in sales within five years, according to Orlando Sentinel. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

The Muslim market presents significant opportunities for food, beverage, and cosmetics brands, according to management consultancy firm A T Kearney. The worldwide Muslim population is 1.56 billion, but few companies are taking advantage of the market, reported Cosmetic Design. Full Story

The newest innovation in meals ready to eat (MREs) for U.S. mobile forces, special packets of easy-to-eat, high-nutrition, high-calorie foods, will be available in the field next month and to all troops over the next three years. The new high-calorie offerings, known as First Strike Rations, serve troops who head into combat and are on the move. The packet is good for three meals, and includes about 3,000 calories, reported Military.com. Full Story

Diageo plc, Heineken International BV and Namibia Breweries Limited reached agreement to form a new joint venture for their combined beer, cider and RTD businesses in South Africa, to be called DHN Drinks (Pty) Limited. Diageo and Heineken will each own 42.25% of DHN Drinks and NBL will own 15.5%. Full Story

Australian food group Goodman Fielder plans to acquire Paradise Food Industries from Archer Capital. Paradise manufacturers biscuits and muesli bars and its brands include Cottage, Vive and Veri Deli, reported Reuters. Full Story

Freedom Nutritional Products' Freedom Foods exchanged contracts for the acquisition of land and buildings in New South Wales in order to establish its own dedicated manufacturing facility, reported Yahoo! Finance. Full Story

Health News

Albertsons launched a new program aimed at curbing childhood obesity. The Albertsons Healthy Eaters field trip program introduces children in kindergarten to 4th grades to healthy eating habits. Full Story

Washington News

The Senate passed legislation that would toughen inspections of products made outside the U.S. The bill calls for a public database of consumer complaints, bolsters the Consumer Products Safety Commission to help it certify the safety of overseas products, and bans lead in children's goods, reported The Associated Press. Full Story

The Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008 was introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT). The legislation deals with the biggest credit card fee, the interchange fee, which grew to $36 billion in 2006. Full Story

Meanewhile, the Food Marketing Institute praised the introduction of the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008 as it promises to save consumers and retailers billions of dollars by requiring that Visa and MasterCard credit card transaction fees be based on what would be charged in a truly competitive market. Full Story

The National Retail Federation also welcomed the introduction of the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008. Full Story

Members of Congress demanded that federal officials quickly hand over a list of stores that received any beef that was the subject of the Westland/Hallmark Meat recall, reported USA Today. Full Story

Alliance Mechanical LLC, a commercial refrigeration company and one of its top executives pleaded guilty for their role in a conspiracy to rig bids on contracts for the installation of commercial refrigeration equipment in Safeway Inc. grocery stores in the Phoenix metropolitan area, according to the Department of Justice. Full Story

Market News

California citrus growers are debating whether to set different maturity standards for oranges in order to harvest a tastier crop, as the first oranges of the season are sour. The debate centers on how ripe an orange should be before it's picked, if growers wait the fruit is likely to be sweeter, but growers can sometimes profit by getting into the market early, reported The Fresno Bee. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Agricultural Research Service scientists are seeking environmentally friendly alternatives to using chemicals to combat several insects that harm peaches. Scientists are evaluating two tiny, soil-dwelling nematodes as possible biological controls to thwart damage caused by the plum curculio weevil, and two clear-winged moths. Full Story

A group of crawfish farmers plan to stop harvesting two days a week in an effort to tighten supplies in the face of falling wholesale prices. The move comes after crawfish farmers saw the wholesale price per pound fall from $2.50 to $1 in the past four weeks, said David Savoy, president of the Louisiana Crawfish Farmers Association, reported The Advocate. Full Story

Hawaii's livestock production continued to fall in January, with the exception of beef production, which was up 23% from January 2007, totaling 658,000-lbs., reported Pacific Business News (Honolulu). Full Story (Free Registration Required)

A lingering water shortage in the Everglades Agricultural Area impacted the sugar crop, causing it to decline by nearly 7%, according to the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida. Grower-members of the cooperative produced about 2.6 million tons of sugar cane during the 128-day harvest season, down from about 2.8 tons in 2006, reported South Florida Business Journal. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Record-high grain prices are fueling a rural economic boom in farm states such as Kansas. Farm equipment dealers have a backlog of several months in orders for new machinery. Cropland rents are rising, along with agricultural land prices, reported The Washington Times. Full Story

Monsanto Inc. and Divergence Inc. identified the genetic code of a soybean pest that causes $1 billion worth of crop loss in the U.S. each year. The companies completed a draft sequence of the genome of the soybean cyst nematode, which should help scientists understand how the pest functions and grows, providing insight into how to combat it, reported STLtoday.com. Full Story

Favorable crop prices and an improved Sierra snowpack may cut the number of Sacramento Valley farmers offering to sell water this spring. Water managers say attractive prices for rice and other crops may discourage farmers from leaving land fallow in order to sell water, reported California Farm Bureau.

USDA declared Ventura County a primary disaster area after last year's firestorms in Southern California. Ventura County officials report that the strong winds caused more than $55 million in damage to avocados and lemons, reported California Farm Bureau.

The Department of Commerce initiated a changed circumstances review of the antidumping duty order on canned pineapple fruit from Thailand. Full Notice

NMFS prohibited directed fishing for Pacific cod in the Western Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska. Full Notice

NMFS prohibited directed fishing for pollock in Statistical Area 630 in the Gulf of Alaska. Full Notice

NMFS published its annual management measures governing the Pacific halibut fishery. Full Notice

NMFS proposed to implement Amendment 89 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area to establish Bering Sea habitat conservation measures. Full Notice

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