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Industry
News
Whole Foods Market Inc. and Wild Oats
Markets signed a definitive merger agreement under
which Whole Foods will acquire Wild Oats' outstanding
common stock in a cash tender offer of $18.50 per share,
or approximately $565 million. Full
Story
Food Institute Members can access a list of all
of the mergers & acquisitions that took place in
2006 and prior years. Click
here to start your search using the Mergers &
Acquisitions Database. Not yet a member, click here.
The 2006 edition of the Food Institute's annual Food
Business Mergers & Acquisitions publication
will be available for purchase soon. For more information,
contact Danielle Breuel, Research & Education Director,
at dbreuel@foodinstitute.com
or by calling 201-791-5570 ext. 216.
Spartan Stores Inc. is set to begin construction
on a new Family Fare Supermarket that will be the prototype
for future stores. The new store in Allendale
Township, MI, will have 60%
more retail space and will incorporate all features
to be seen in future stores: a gas station with convenience
store and a drive-up pharmacy, reported Grand Rapids
Press. Full
Story
Winn-Dixie plans to remodel about 75 stores
annually. Done up in darker earth tones, the new
look focuses on showing perishables such as produce
in a more tantalizing light, while removing aisle obstacles
that block quicker shopping trips. The first remodeled
store with the new look opens next month in Jacksonville,
FL, with 35 more to be completed this year. The up-to-$2-million
per store remodeling work will take about seven years
to roll through the chain's 522 stores in five states,
according to St. Petersburg Times. Full
Story
 Coca-Cola
North America will put caffeine content information
on the labels on all of its beverages containing
the ingredient. The Company has already included caffeine
labeling on its Full Throttle and Enviga packaging,
and will roll out the new labels on its other brands,
starting with cans of Coca-Cola Classic in May, and
expanding to other brands and packages during the remainder
of the year. Full
Story
PepsiCo Inc. plans to introduce Diet Pepsi
Max, an energized version of Diet Pepsi that includes
more caffeine, as well as ginseng, reported Reuters.
The drink is geared toward consumers age 25 to 34 who
want the caffeine content of drinks like PepsiCo's Mountain
Dew, but are starting to become concerned about their
weight. Full
Story
Starbucks is increasing efforts to sell
its pre-made coffee drinks, coffee beans for home brewing
and other branded caffeinated products. The efforts
include wider distribution, a new advertising campaign
and even plans for vending machines that will distribute
hot coffee drinks, reported MSNBC. Full
Story
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. plans to open
12 new restaurants in the New York metro area this year,
double the number the chain opened last year in the
city and surrounding suburbs, reported Crain's
New York Business. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Lenny's Franchisor, LLC reached a deal with franchisee
group SamStorm Subs to open 28 Lenny's Sub Shops
restaurants in Indianapolis. Full
Story
Latest
sales & earnings for food related companies
(Updated Daily)
Land O'Lakes will sell one of its Tulare, CA-based
cheese manufacturing operations to Canada-based Saputo
Cheese USA Inc. As part of the sale, Saputo agreed
to purchase two billion pounds of milk annually from
Land O'Lakes, reported The Fresno Bee. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
The food industry will remain by
far the largest single market for packaging equipment,
accounting for more than two-fifths of all product demand
in 2010. Global demand for packaging machinery is
projected to expand 4.9% per year through 2010, to over
$33 billion, according to a new study from The Freedonia
Group, Inc., reported CIEN. Full
Story
Asian food maker, Kahiki Foods, Inc.,
received a non-binding offer for all of its outstanding
capital stock for a purchase price of $2.25 per share
of common stock and the payment of the liquidation preference
of the preferred stock. The offer was received from
an undisclosed privately held company based in Pittsburgh,
PA. Full
Story
A petroleum marketing, distribution, and convenience
store company in the Southeastern U.S. is putting 46
convenience stores up for sale, reported CSP
Daily News. The sale of these stores will be managed
by Matrix Capital Markets Group Inc., which did not
release the name of the seller. Full
Story
Advertising Age examines how ConAgra's
Healthy Choice brand anticipated consumer demand
and avoided becoming obsolete. The reason why every
brand is in danger of becoming obsolete is that the
consumer insights that help managers conceive and launch
most brands are often three, 10 or, in some cases, 30
years old. As a result, many brands that seem healthy
can become overnight failures if a competing brand captures
untapped demand with something new and improved. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Idaho-based food manufacturer,
Great American Appetizers, launched
a new potato product line,
which includes two products -
Betty Crocker Mashed Homestyle and Betty
Crocker Gourmet Twice Baked Potatoes, which join Betty
Crocker Mashed Sweet Potatoes. Full
Story
 Consumers
are often somewhat contradictory in their opinions and
ideas about one-stop vs. multi-channel shopping.
Even stores that set up to be "everything" (the Mass
channel, in particular) are often used by shoppers for
very narrow slices of their total product offerings.
The Hartman Group's Heartbeat takes a look at
how retailers can focus on relevance and understand
and cultivate existing key competencies. Full
Story
Duane Reade Holdings, Inc.'s operating subsidiary
entered into an agreement to assume the leases of eight
Gristedes locations throughout Manhattan. Each location
will be renovated and fully converted to a Duane Reade
store approximately six to eight weeks after each lease
assumption. Full
Story
KFC is offering fish for the first time with
its new Fish Snacker. The new product, which is
being sold for 99 cents, is made of 100% Alaskan Pollack
topped with tartar sauce and served on a sesame bun.
Full
Story
 A
Safeway store in West Seattle is now selling biodiesel
fuel made from a blend of 20% soybean-oil-based biodiesel
and 80% petroleum diesel fuel, called SoyPower,
reported The Olympian. Full
Story
Campbell
Soup Co. plans to launch 14 lower sodium varieties among
more than 40 new or reformulated soups for the 2007
- 2008 soup season. Full
Story
International
News
The
Coca-Cola Company acquired San Miguel's 65% shareholding
in Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, Inc. The total
consideration of the transaction is $590 million. Full
Story
Canadian supermarket chain Loblaw Cos. will
lower food prices and improve customer service to deliver
10% earnings growth a year. The chain will also
increase sales of its private labels, which include
No Name, President's Choice and Blue Menu, to 30% of
total revenue from 25%, according to Bloomberg.com.
Full
Story
Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. formed an equally-owned
joint venture with India's Crown Beers to brew,
market and sell Budweiser and other beer brands in India,
where incomes and the market for alcoholic drinks are
growing. Full
Story
Washington News
Stepped-up inspections at some meat and poultry
plants are set to begin in April, according to an
Agriculture Department official overseeing the first
overhaul of food safety inspections in a decade. The
new policy is designed to increase scrutiny of processing
plants where the threat of E. coli and other germs is
high or where past visits have found unsafe practices.
Plants with fewer risks and better food-handling records
will be inspected less often. Full
Story
Two members of the U.S. Senate's agriculture committee
will fight proposed cuts in farm subsidies, despite
resistance from urban lawmakers and other countries.
The Bush administration's plan would cost $87.3 billion
over the next five years, not counting food stamps and
other nutrition programs, compared to $105 billion spent
on farm programs over the past five years, according
to Associated Press. Full
Story
BJ's Wholesale Club,
Inc. voluntary recalled pre-packaged Wellsley Farms
brand fresh mushrooms due to a potential health
risk. Full
Story
Market News
 Florida
citrus officials expect a major reduction in the 2006-07
orange crop because deliveries of early and mid-season
varieties to the state's juice processors haven't kept
pace with the official USDA crop estimate. The deputy
executive director of research and operations at the
Florida Department of Citrus estimated the next USDA
crop forecast, scheduled for release March 9, will reduce
Florida orange production by 5 million to 7 million
boxes from the 140 million boxes projected Feb. 8, according
to The Lakeland Ledger. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
After an initial increase, prices of California
oranges, lemons and avocados have come down, and
supplies of the fruit, although not plentiful, are available.
A month ago, California growers warned that the state's
freeze, which destroyed three-quarters of the citrus
crop, would cause fruit prices to triple, reported Toledo
Blade. Full
Story
California's apple acreage appears to have stabilized
after 10 years of reductions. According to the California
Apple Commission, farmers removed 400 acres of apple
trees this winter, but 300 of those have been replanted
or grafted to new varieties. About 15,000 acres of apple
trees have been removed since California's acreage peaked
a decade ago, at about 38,000, but the commission says
apple prices have improved in recent years, reported
California Farm Bureau Federation.
California's fresh grape industry is eyeing Russia
as a potentially lucrative place to export fresh
California grapes, reported The Fresno Bee. Full
Story (Free Registration Required)
Farm-raised catfish processed during January 2007
totaled 47.8 million pounds round weight, down 6%
from January 2006. The average price paid to producers
was 83.9 cents per pound for January 2007, up 0.1 cents
from last month and 11.2 cents above a year ago, according
to USDA's Catfish Processing report. View
Report
USDA's Cold Storage report released 3:00
p.m. (ET), Feb. 22. View
Report
USDA's Cold Storage Annual released 3:00
p.m. (ET), Feb. 22. View
Report
 Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service reopened the
comment period with respect to a petition from Syngenta
Seeds, Inc., seeking a determination of nonregulated
status for corn rootworm- resistant corn derived
from a transformation event designated as MIR604. Full
Notice
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) closed directed fishing for the rock
sole, flathead sole, and "other flatfish"
fishery category by vessels using trawl gear in
the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area.
Full
Notice
NMFS temporarily restricted
the requirements of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction
Plan's implementing regulations. Full
Notice
NMFS issued a proposed rule
to amend regulations implementing the North Pacific
Groundfish Observer Program. Full
Notice
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