Food retailers eyeing India would have been surprised to hear the BJP political party, tipped to lead the country’s next government, publish a tough stance on foreign investment in its retail sector. Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke hinted the food giant could be looking at further disposals and Wal-Mart said more affordable organic groceries would be available in the US after a tie-up with the recently-revived Wild Oats brand.
“BJP is committed to protecting the interest of small and medium retailers, SMEs and those employed by them” India’s BJP political party, tipped as the party set to lead the country’s next government, said it would reverse the easing of regulations allowing foreign investment in its multi-brand retail sector.
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“We are looking at our product and brand portfolio and analysing it through a sharper, stricter lens” – Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke indicated the world’s largest food company is continuing to scrutinise the future of parts of its business.
“Maintaining our long-term growth in this priority market for the company requires a significant increase in production capacity of key brands,” Romeo Lacerda, CEO of Mondelez International’s Russian arm, explains why the snacks giant is looking to build a new plant.
“We know our customers are interested in purchasing organic products and, traditionally, those customers have had to pay more. We are changing that” – Jack Sinclair, executive vice president of grocery for Wal-Mart’s US operations, on the retail giant’s listing of a range of Wild Oats-brand organic lines.
“We see further growth opportunities, especially abroad” – Richard Oetker, CEO of German food giant Dr Oetker, indicates the company’s optimism over its prospects.
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By GlobalData“The expectation of an increasingly deteriorating economic environment in the European sugar and bioethanol markets – disclosed via several ad-hoc announcements in November and December 2013 as well as in February 2014 – has been confirmed and reinforced” – German sugar refiner Suedzucker explains why it expects operating profit to tumble this year.
“The investment will be used by Genius to accelerate its delivery of top-quality free-from foods in the UK, increase category innovation in free from and create international expansion” – Genius Foods on the impact the investment from private-equity firm Verlinvest could have on the UK free-from group.
“Australia has a unique advantage in the supply and manufacture of high-quality premium agriculture based foods” – Rory Macleod, MD of Freedom Foods Group, reflects on the Australian firm’s deal to produce a “high-quality dairy milk product” for Chinese company Bright Dairy.
“The food industry needs to accept there is a higher level of risk than they previously acknowledged and that investment in proactive interventions will manage business risk and deter fraud” – Alison Johnson, a director at Food Forensics, the UK firm that is one of the companies behind FoodIntegrity an EU-funded research project on fighting food fraud, insists the industry must be more aware of the issue.
“Both stratgically and financially, any of those three could do it” – Phil Gorham, an equity analyst at Morningstar, reflects on the reported bidders for UK museli maker Dorset Cereals.
