From the enthusiastic boss of US retailer Supervalu Inc Craig Herkert to the ambitious Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke, we have heard from a number of bosses this week on their growth prospects and fight to beat the recession. Elsewhere, the surprise announcement that French retail giant Carrefour will exit Russia continued to provoke passionate views from the industry, while Jumbo CEO Frits van Eerd happily broke the news that it had snapped up local rival Super de Boer following much speculation.
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Here is who said what about the burning issues this week.
“It is a different world – even delivery drivers expect their cut. Corruption is part of retailing in Russia – from state authorities to all levels of the supply chain” – a UK advisor to a Russian retail firm tells just-food
“Super de Boer is a nice combination with the company and Super de Boer fits very well into Jumbo’s strategy for the future. We look forward to working with Super de Boer to continue and further develop Jumbo’s formula” – CEO of Jumbo Frits van Eerd
“Sugar indeed has grown dramatically. We see high volatility in raw materials and we are going to have to live with that. It’s not new though. What we do see now is that it is world spread” – Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke
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By GlobalData“This is not an abandonment of traditional grocery; this is an acceleration of Save-A-Lot. I am genuinely excited about the opportunity to grow this format” – chief executive of Supervalu Inc Craig Herkert
“It is clear that the social costs of the global economic crisis are only likely to be felt in earnest next year, when corporate bankruptcies and unemployment will continue to rise” – EBRD chief economist Erik Berglo warns
“Leo’s will allow us to expand our presence in the tortilla market, which we have been serving since 1994 with our Mi Casa brand, and it aligns well with our foodservice business. We’re pleased to have this fine organization join Flowers Foods” – George Deese, Flowers Foods’ chairman of the board, CEO and president
“This is a resilient industry. We are in a growth industry; people want to travel and it is just a matter of people getting back the confidence to travel” – Andreas Fehr, MD of Kraft Foods’ travel retail and European export businesses, strikes a bullish tone on the economy.
“It’s actually a myth that supermarkets are this huge power that behave irresponsibly. Actually, the majority of supermarket suppliers are major multinational businesses who are in the same sort of bargaining position that the supermarkets are in” – Richard Dodd, spokesperson for the BRC
“We recognise that we could have managed our farmer relations more proactively in the past and we came to the table today genuinely committed to resolving this issue and put a generous offer on the table” – Conor O’Malley, executive for corporate service and logistics at National Foods, bemoans the collapse of talks with local dairy farmers.
“Cadbury management has successfully laid out its hand in the Q3 interim statement, showing how attractive Cadbury is – and this trading update should put further pressure on Kraft to increase its bid” – Andrew Wood, analyst at Sanford Bernstein, awaits Kraft’s next move.
