Retail News
Checkouts at the nation's grocery stores rang up 6.8%
more sales in July compared to a year earlier, while eating
and drinking place sales rose 5.2% -- both outpacing food
price inflation. This put cumulative 2011 sales up 5.6% and
5.1%, respectively. Meanwhile, warehouse club and supercenter
sales increased 4.9% in the first half of 2011, while drug
store sales rose just 3.9%, according to Food Institute analysis
of just-released government data. Full
Story (FI Membership Required)
D'Agostino Supermarkets joined Allegiance Retail Services,
a new division created by Foodtown, which offers independent
retailers the benefits of a cooperative membership while retaining
their own store banners. The transition will take place over
the next few months, reported Supermarket News. Full
Story
About 9% of U.S. grocery shoppers buy high omega-3 food
or beverage products in a typical grocery shopping trip,
according to Omega-3: Global Product Trends and Opportunities,
a report released by Packaged Facts. Consumer demand for omega-3
products will continue growing briskly over the 2011-2015
forecast period, and will influence the activities of marketers
worldwide across various categories of consumer packaged goods,
including the private label arena. Full
Story
New Store News: Fresh Market will open a 20,000-sq.
ft. location in Towson, MD on Aug. 24, reported Baltimore
Sun. Full
Story ... Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will
open two stores in Long Beach, CA on Sept. 14. Full
Story ... Foodtown is in talks to open a 25,000-
to 30,000-sq. ft. location in Secaucus, NJ, reported Secaucus
New Jersey News. Full
Story
The Western Union Company and The Pantry, Inc. reached
an agreement to offer the Western Union goCASHSM service,
an in-lane money-transfer service. The goCASHSM service will
be available this fall at Kangaroo Express stores. Full
Story
Reader's Digest Association's Taste of Home introduced
a mobile application with thousands of recipes. Full
Story
Manufacturer News
ConAgra Foods Inc. is closing a microwave
popcorn plant in Hamburg, IA. The company will close the
plant in October and move the operations to its other popcorn
facilities in Marion, OH and Rensselaer, IN. The Hamburg plant
makes Orville Redenbacher's and ACT II microwave popcorn,
reported The Associated Press. Full
Story
The top 10 beverage trends for 2011 include:
D.I.Y. Flavor; Iced Coffee Is Scalding Hot; Drinking Ourselves
Thin; and Fast Food Beyond the Fizz, according to The Food
Channel, CultureWaves and Mintel International. Full
Story
New Product News: Pinnacle Foods Group's
Birds Eye introduced four Steamfresh Chef's Favorites
varieties. Full
Story ... NoGii expanded its gluten-free product
line with NoGii Kids Marshmallow Rice Crisp bar. Full
Story ... Crispy Green Inc. added Crispy Cantaloupe
to its product line. Full
Story ... Aurora Products, Inc. introduced two
trail mix varieties. Full
Story ... Jack Link's Beef Jerky launched Jack
Link's Cholula Hot Sauce Beef Jerky, reported Meat &
Poultry. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
A growing number of Wall Street analysts
claim PepsiCo may be the next company that will split itself,
reported Advertising Age. The analysts claim the company's
fast-rising snacks unit is being held back by its beverage
business. Pepsi dismissed the idea, stating that PepsiCo has
a "very different portfolio [from Kraft Foods], and we
continue to see very attractive opportunities to create value
in our global snacks and beverages businesses." Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Coca-Cola is planning a construction and redesign project
to update its Atlanta campus. One of the first steps will
be creating a first-floor Main Street corridor throughout
the campus, while the ground level will show off the company's
brands and history and contain amenities such as a technology
store and a personal shipping center. A major goal of the
renovation project is to make better use of the company's
lawns, lobbies, cafeterias, auditoriums and conference rooms.
Demolition and construction are scheduled to start in the
late spring and early summer of next year, reported The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Foodservice News
The U.S. West already contains a disproportionately high
number of coffee and snack stores, 26% of the U.S. total,
compared with 17% of the population, according to IBISWorld,
which will make Dunkin' Donuts entry challenging, noted analysts.
So far, locations outside the Northeast are generating lower
sales than the home-region stores. Midwestern locations brought
in, on average, $602,029 in sales for the year ended Oct.
31, compared with $996,247 for New England locations, according
to the company's Franchise Disclosure Document. Stores in
the West averaged $718,100 in sales, reported Bloomberg.com.
Full
Story
Approximately 62% of college students eat at on-campus
dining facilities at least weekly, according to Technomic's
College and University Consumer Trend Report. Customization
is an increasingly critical issue for college diners: nearly
half (47%) believe it is important that they can omit or substitute
ingredients in their food. Some 21% of students limit their
consumption of meat. In addition, 48% would like more on-campus
dining facilities to stay open later at night. Full
Story
T.G.I. Friday's plans to expand its licensed retail business
by targeting new licensees in the food and beverage categories.
The company has over 50 million product units with partners
such as Heinz, Inventure and Diageo, resulting in more than
$400 million in sales annually. Full
Story
57th Street General Acquisition Corp. formed a partnership
with Dawn Food Products, Inc. to be its exclusive consolidated
supplier of raw materials for its contract bakery manufacturers
throughout the country. Full
Story The company also raised its Crumbs Holdings 2011
development outlook to 16 to 18 new store openings from
14 to 16. Full
Story
Traffic counts at Brinker International Inc.'s Maggiano's
Little Italy were up nearly 6% in its fourth quarter,
compared with a gain of 1% a year earlier, reported The
Dallas Morning News. At Chili's, traffic at company-owned
restaurants gained 2.1% for the quarter, compared with a drop
of 6.4% a year earlier. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Restaurant Roundup: Burger King Holdings, Inc.
increased its international restaurant count by 56 net new
restaurants in the second quarter. Full
Story ... Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. expects
to open 12 new full-size company-owned restaurants during
the full fiscal year 2011. Red Robin also plans to open between
12 and 15 new restaurants in 2012. Full
Story ... Carrabba's Italian Grill introduced the
Cucina Casuale menu. Full
Story ... Red Mango launched
a Mango frozen yogurt flavor. Full
Story ... Applebee's added several dishes to its
Two for $20 menu. Full
Story
Chick-fil-A is scouting for Twin Cities locations;
the company plans to enter the area in 2013. Typically when
Chick-fil-A enters a market, it opens three to five stores
in the first year, then ramps up to roughly 25 stores within
five years, reported Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal.
Full
Story (Paid Subscription Required)
Executives on the Move: Smashburger promoted
Greg Creighton to president, hired Chris Chang as SVP of Finance
and Strategy and promoted Jeremy Morgan to SVP, Marketing
and Consumer Insights. Full
Story ... Dollar General promoted Jeff Owen and
Karen Sensabaugh to senior vice presidents of store operations,
reported Nashville Post. Full
Story ... Archer Daniels Midland Company appointed
Joe Taets SVP and president, Agricultural Services and Domingo
Lastra VP, Business Growth. Full
Story
Health News
The UN must make reducing salt intake a global health
priority, according to UK scientists in a report published
in the British Medical Journal. The scientists claim
that a 15% cut in consumption could save 8.5 million lives
around the world over the next decade, reported BBC News.
Full
Story
Washington News
USDA and DOE awarded 10 grants totaling $12.2 million
to spur research into improving the efficiency and
cost-effectiveness of growing biofuel and bioenergy crops.
Full
Story
Unilever United States, Inc. is voluntarily recalling
a limited number of mislabeled 24-count boxes of Popsicle
brand Sugar Free Orange, Cherry and Grape flavored ice pops
that mistakenly contain Popsicle brand Sugar Free Healthy
Bunch Fudgsicle and Creamsicle ice pops. Milk is undeclared
on these boxes. Full
Story
McNees Meats and Wholesale LLC expanded its recall to
include approximately 2,200-lbs. of ground beef product that
may be contaminated with E. Coli O157. Full
Story
Global News
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is exploring the possibility of buying
Carrefour SA's Brazilian unit. UBS AG is advising Wal-Mart
on the possibility of making an offer for Carrefour's Brazilian
stores, though Wal-Mart is not currently in talks with Carrefour
and has not contacted the company about its interest. The
two companies attempted to reach a deal on the Brazilian stores
two years ago but ended talks because of a price disagreement,
reported The Associated Press. Full
Story
Leprino Foods Company opened a business
center in Singapore to develop cheese and other dairy
products for the Asia-Pacific region. Full
Story
Brasil Foods S.A. will build an industrial plant
for processed products in the United Arab Emirates,
reported 4traders.com. Full
Story
Japan's food self-sufficiency rate on a calorific intake
basis slipped to 39% in fiscal 2010, down one percentage
point from a year earlier and dropping beneath 40% for the
first time in four years, according to the Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries Ministry. The ministry blamed the decline mainly
on falls in domestic production of wheat and beet sugar, reported
The Japan Times. Full
Story
Market News
Many hog producers across the U.S. have no intention of
expanding their herds as feed costs rise. At the same
time, pork exports are surging, especially to China where
tight supplies are fueling food inflation. Chicken producers
also recently started reducing flocks as high feed costs hurt
bottom lines, reported Reuters. Full
Story
There is new evidence of Asian carp in Wisconsin waters,
according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources. An angler's catch of a bighead carp in the Lower
Wisconsin River and traces of silver carp DNA were found in
the St. Croix River late last month. However, no young Asian
carp nor other signs of successful reproduction have been
documented so far in any Wisconsin waters. Full
Story
Highbush blueberry producers and importers voted
to continue the Blueberry Promotion, Research and
Information Order. Full
Story
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) provided
notice of country-by-country allocations of the fiscal
year 2012 in-quota quantity of the tariff-rate quotas for
imported raw cane sugar, refined and specialty sugar and sugar-containing
products. Full
Notice
USTR also is requesting comments to assist it in identifying
significant barriers to U.S. exports of goods, services
and U.S. foreign direct investment for inclusion in the annual
National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers.
Full
Notice
The Department of Commerce made certain changes to the
margin calculations of the preliminary administrative
review of the antidumping duty order on certain orange juice
from Brazil. The review covers four producers/exporters of
the subject merchandise, while the period of review is Mar.
1, 2009 through Feb. 28, 2010. The Department also determined
not to revoke the antidumping duty order for OJ produced and
exported by Sucocitrico Cutrale, S.A. Full
Notice
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