The announcement today that General Mills has entered exclusive talks to buy a stake in French dairy business Yoplait will end one of the most fiercely-contested takeover battles in the food industry in the last 12 months. This week, just-food also spent time exploring the new products on offer at IFE and heard about the strategies driving the UK grocery operators. Here’s the best of what was said on just-food this week:
“General Mills and Yoplait have developed an excellent business in America. The brand holds a market leading position [accounting for] 35% of total yoghurt sales and America is one of Yoplait’s largest markets. This gives us much confidence in General Mills’ [ability] to build on the success of Yoplait” – a Sodiaal spokesperson confirms General Mills’ interest in Yoplait.
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“It would have been harder to fail than to succeed” – Asda CEO Andy Clarke on the favourable trading conditions retailers have enjoyed in recent years.
“No one wants to be the .2 in the 2.2 kids” – Tesco UK CEO Richard Brasher on why the retailer is looking beyond its Clubcard data to understand more about its customers.
“We’re really happy with it” Waitrose managing director Mark Price remains committed to the upmarket retailer’s supply relationship with Ocado.
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“Asking industry to nudge consumers in the right direction is not enough – and risks undoing all that has been achieved recently in the public health arena” – Food Ethics Council executive director Dr Tom MacMillan criticises the UK government’s new responsibilty deal with retailers and manufacturers.
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By GlobalData“The branded goods manufacturers participating in the group sat face-to-face with their main rivals at these meetings. Knowledge of prospective requests of the retail trade and reactions of the major competitors to these could have influenced the manufacturers’ behaviour to the same extent as information on price increases planned by their competitors. This type of information is usually treated by the companies with strict confidence” – the Bundeskartellamt said as it fined Kraft Foods, Unilever and Dr. Oetker EUR38m (US$53.2m) for illegally sharing competitive information.
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