UK dairy co-operative First Milk was this week forced to come out and calm fears over its financial position after announcing it would delay payments to farmers. Staying in the UK, Morrisons announced chief executive Dalton Philips would leave as the UK grocer battles to reignite sales. And Brazil-based food giant Marfrig revealed its CEO had resigned from the business.
“In the next chapter of Morrisons’ development, we need to return the business to growth. The board believes this is best done under new leadership” – Andrew Higginson, the former Tesco executive set to become Morrisons’ chairman next week, explains why CEO Dalton Philips is leaving the UK’s fourth-largest grocer.
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“We have strengthened the business significantly by making these decisions… This business is very safe. I know it comes as a bit of a shock. A deferral of milk payment is not something we did lightly. But I cannot emphasise enough how big an impact that has on securing the future of our business” – First Milk chairman Nigel Evans assures its decision to delay payments for milk collected by 14 days, and increase members’ capital investment from five to seven pence per litre, is in the best interests of the UK dairy co-op.
“From the outset, we have been clear that to secure the GBP75m investment and therefore the next generation of manufacturing at Bournville, we will need to become cost competitive. During consultation, we agreed that this would mean fewer people working in Bournville in the future than there are today” – a spokesperson for Mondelez International explains why redundanices were necessary at Bournville, the flagship site of chocolate arm Cadbury.
“Martin does not represent change from an operational point of view or even a cultural point of view. I am convinced that by end 2015 Marfrig will be better than it is today” – after announcing his resignation as CEO of Marfrig, Sergio Rial insists the Brazilian food group can prosper under successor Martin Secco Arias.
“The results are devastating to the Bidart family. As a family-owned grower operating in California since the 1930s, we place safety at the forefront of everything we do. Our hearts go out to all who have been impacted by the apple-related listeriosis outbreak” – Leonard Bidart, president Bidart Bros. issues a statement following confirmation from the US Food and Drug Administration, that two strains of Listeria monocytogenes associated with an outbreak of the foodborne illness linked to three deaths in the US, have been detected at one of its production sites.
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By GlobalData“We’ve been in touch with a large number of our farmers. It’s tough for them at the moment, but most of them are upbeat and share our view that the weather we’re experiencing is not unusual and they are expecting low levels, if any, of lost production at this stage” – Dr John Penno, MD of New Zealand infant formula producer Synlait, plays down concerns over a possible drought in the country.
“Vaasan and Lantmännen Unibake complement each other in many ways and together we can better respond to changing customer needs, expand our product line, and achieve a larger critical mass within product development and innovation to benefit our customers” – Per Olof Nyman, Lantmännen’s president and CEO, comments on the Swedish group’s acquisition of Finnish bakery business Vaasan from private-equity firm Lion Capital.
“Don’t get me wrong, in the short term, this will obviously affect us. In fact, it has affected us already. I had a pitch at Safeway a few months ago and the buyer said ‘Hey I’m taking this brand and they are going to have a national campaign.’ We are feeling the heat a little bit but I know in the mid term we will be perfectly fine as our values proposition is going to come out. We are talking to the guy who is an athlete, who is an active lifestyle. We have all-natural, great-tasting, high-protein options” – Powerful Yoghurt CEO Carlos Ramirez says Danone’s launch of the “male-targeting” Oikos Triple Zero yoghurt range, is not seen as a big threat.
“This latest public relations stunt, focused on fiction rather than facts, does nothing to foster positive dialogue or affect positive change. We find our policies effective and stand by them,” the spokesperson said” – PepsiCo lashes out at Sum Of Us’ latest ad campaign criticising the snack and beverage giant’s palm oil practices.
“What we can say is that eastern Europe, central Europe and western Europe are the regions that are on the top of our list for M&A targets. We are not saying that we would refuse a good offer from our region – south-east Europe – but our intent is to reduce our exposure regarding sales revenues to the domestic market and our region” – a spokesperson for Croatian food group, Podravka says the group is looking for potential acquisitions outside of its domestic market to boost sales.
