May 11, 2011

IFDA News

As "the great equalizer," social media is a welcome tool for independents competing against the marketing resources of large chains. When an operator asks how your other customers are using social media, can you give an intelligent answer? Can you help? During a session on "Building Traffic with Social Media" at the 2011 IFDA / IFMA Sales & Marketing Conference, Paul Rand, president and CEO of Zocalo Group, will provide a foundation on social media tools and what's working in the restaurant industry. Rand will also share insights on keeping momentum in social media efforts and help you discover the strength of word of mouth marketing. The conference, taking place July 17-19 in Washington DC, can help you be a better resource for customers. For full information, click here.

An upcoming IFDA webinar will provide distributor sales teams, managers, and sales support with inside tips they can use to put brokers to work for them more successfully. Presenters Caroline Perkins and Patty Duffey, co-CEOs of SPEAK Foodservice, will provide results of research conducted for the session and will bring their knowledge and experience to the topic. Discover what makes brokers tick. Who is their boss? Their customer? How do they make money? Identify brokers' expertise and how to make it work for you. The webinar is only available to IFDA Distributor Members and has a fee of $20. To register for the webinar, taking place on June 9 at 2:00 PM EDT, click here.

Distributor News

Sysco Canada purchased Bedell's Foodservice of Ontario. The acquisition is expected to solidify more than 130 jobs in Bedell's locations in Windsor, London and Dover Centre, reported the Windsor Star. Full Story

Operator News

Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. is making "substantial progress" on the sale of the Arby's brand, according to executives. The company narrowed its list of potential buyers to "several quality bidders," reported Bloomberg.com. Full Story

Holiday Inn spent $1 billion to re-launch and rebrand their entire business, including a design concept combining a front desk, restaurant, bar and business center. An overhaul of their menu features revamped food choices, including fruit and nut salads, macaroni and cheese waffle sandwiches, pulled pork BBQ sliders and bacon cheeseburgers, reported Reuters. Full Story

China Grill Management (CGM) will sell the 50% interests that it owns in its food and beverage joint ventures at Delano, Mondrian Los Angeles, Mondrian South Beach, Morgans, Sanderson and St Martin's Lane to Morgans Hotel Group (MHG) for approximately $20 million. CGM also entered into agreement with MHG to obtain full ownership of the Asia de Cuba brand and all associated intellectual property, and will focus on re-introducing the Asia de Cuba concept globally with multiple locations set to open over the next several years, reported South Florida Business Journal. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

China registered 48 billion fast-food transactions in 2010, each with an average value of about $3.22, according to statistics compiled by retail analytics firm Access Asia, reported The Globe and Mail. An estimated 15.3 million urban Chinese consume fast food once a day. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Retail News

Publix Super Markets Inc. sold its 36-store Crispers chain to Miami investment firm Boyne Capital Partners, reported St. Petersburg Times. Full Story

The Pantry, Inc. will expand its fresh food offerings to a third market, Birmingham, AL, reported News & Observer. Full Story

Japanese convenience store operator FamilyMart aims to increase the number of its outlets in China to 8,000 by February 2021 from around its current 600. Ting Hsin International Group, which operates FamilyMart stores in China, will lift its stake in their joint venture to 59.7% from 50.5%. FamilyMart is aiming to boost the number of its stores worldwide to 40,000 by 2020 from about 18,000 now. Of that, 11,000 outlets would be in Japan with 29,000 overseas, reported Reuters. Full Story

Target Corp. is readying its plans for its Canadian debut, setting up three distribution centers and refining its strategy to include the sale of fresh food at some locations. About 40% of merchandise in p-fresh stores will overlap with goods carried in Canadian grocery stores, according to a senior partner at retail consultancy McMillan Doolittle. Based on that estimate, the new Target stores in Canada could slice off C$1.5 billion to C$2.5 billion of grocers' business, reported The Globe and Mail. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Industry News

Consumer confidence in food safety is at its highest point in seven years, with 88% of shoppers "completely" or "somewhat" confident in the safety of food at the supermarket, according to FMI's U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report. More than 90% of shoppers agree "strongly" or "somewhat" with the statement that they trust their grocery stores to ensure the food they eat is safe and more than half of shoppers agree strongly. When asked where they believe the food safety breaches occur, more than half of shoppers named food processing and manufacturing plants. Full Story

View Today! The May 11 edition of New Products Hits and Misses with Phil Lempert evaluates: Green Valley Organics Lactose Free Cultured Sour Cream, Annie Chun's Roasted Seaweed Snacks Wasabi Flavor, Ideal No Calorie Sweetener 100 Packets, Pretzel Pete Pretzel Pearls Coconut Curry Mild Heat Flavor and Planters Flavor Grove Almonds Vanilla Caramel Flavor. Click here to view.

King Arthur Flour Co. plans to break ground in June on an expansion of its facility in Norwich, VT. The project, estimated to cost $8 million to $10 million, is scheduled to be finished by June 2012, reported Burlington Free Press. Full Story

General Mills' Betty Crocker leads the $382 million market for cake, cupcake and pie mixes, with a 38.1% share, followed by Duncan Hines, with a 30.9% share, according to data for the 52 weeks ending Apr. 17 by SymphonyIRI Group, excluding Wal-Mart, reported The New York Times on the Web. Full Story (Subscription Required)

Latest sales & earnings for food related companies (Updated Daily - FI Membership Required)

Lala USA plans to rebrand Sinton Dairy and its other regional brands under the Borden name. The Sinton dairy produces more than 220 million-lbs. of milk, nine million-lbs. of cottage cheese and three million-lbs. of sour cream a year, reported Colorado Springs Gazette. Full Story

China's food prices fell 0.4% in April from the month prior but were 11.5% higher than a year earlier, according to analysts, reported Reuters. Full Story

Health News

Women who drink five or more cups of coffee a day may lower their risk for developing ER-positive breast cancer, a hormone-responsive estrogen receptor form of the disease, according to Swedish research published in Breast Cancer Research, reported HealthDay. Full Story

Washington News

Five San Antonio schools will take part in a $2 million project to install cameras in cafeterias to photograph what foods children place onto their trays. Digital imaging analysis of the snapshots will then calculate how many calories each student consumed. The project is being funded by a grant from USDA, reported The Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Full Story

USDA will adopt most of the recommendations contained in an $8 million, two year study that looked at USDA's history of discrimination and its ongoing civil rights failings. Among its over 200 recommendations were suggestions that the agency appoint a "chief diversity officer" in each state office, that farm service officials be required to "thoroughly" explain reasons for denying loans to minorities and women and that USDA mount public relations efforts to change the agency's reputation by emphasizing its focus on diversity, reported The Washington Post. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Market News

The 2011/12 outlook for U.S. wheat is for reduced supplies with lower carryin and production than in 2010/11. Beginning stocks for 2011/12 are down 14% from 2010/11, but remain the second highest in a decade. All-wheat production is projected at 2.04 billion bushels, down 7% from 2010/11. Corn production for 2011/12 is projected at a record 13.5 billion bushels, up 1.1 billion from 2010/11. Meanwhile, both broiler and turkey production for 2012 are forecast higher as returns improve following expected production cutbacks during the latter part of 2011. However, as feed prices remain relatively high, the rate of expansion during the year is expected to be modest. WASDE Report

The California 2011 peach crop is forecast at 815,000 tons, down less than 1% from 2010. The California Freestone crop is forecast at 385,000 tons, unchanged from last year. Meanwhile, Hawaii guava utilized production for 2010 is estimated at 1.30 million-lbs., 38% lower than the 2009 utilized production. USDA Crop Production Report

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