While the results continued to roll in last week, just-food managed to catch some time with a number of key executives, including the CFO of Arla on the release of its latest earnings results, and Co-op’s head of retail who spoke about investments the retailer has in the pipeline. We also took a look at the pitfalls, challenges and opportunities of investing in Brazil as part of a five-part briefing. Here is a selection of quotes from this week’s news and insight.
“We certainly expect more in the future, and we will continue to participate in industry consolidation in the markets we play in, in Northern Europe, if relevant to our owners” – Arla CFO Frederik Lotz says he has seen “a lot of consolidation action” over the years.
“We know that the convenience is one of only two areas of growth in UK retail. We are right in the sweet spot of that” – Co-Operative retail chief Steve Murrells prepares to leverage the company’s strength in convenience.
“In spite of the short term challenges, we maintain a positive outlook for the Brazilian economy in the long term” – Geraldo Luciano Mattos, M. Dias Branco’s vice president of investments has confidence in Brazil’s long-term prospects.
“For me, as Fonterra’s CEO and as a father of three children, I truly believe that in initiating the recall, we took the right decision and did the right thing at the most critical moment” – Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings concedes that “not many people” would have made the call to initiate a recall.
“This is an extremely complex investigation covering a number of jurisdictions and a variety of businesses” – Detective Chief Superintendent Oliver Shaw, from the City of London Police on the arrest of two men in connection with the horsemeat saga.
“We’ve been looking to grow generally, both organically and through acquisition, and we’ve been on the acquisition trail for a wee while but without any success” – Kavli UK managing director Paul Lewney tells just-food about the firm’s growth ambitions.
“Brazil is very advanced in terms of e-commerce compared to other countries, the projection and trend in e-commerce is very impressive but the top categories are electronics, home appliances, apparel and health and beauty. There is not really a demand for e-commerce with food” – A.T. Kearney principal, Pietro Gandolfi, says the growth in online retailing in Brazil is centred around non-food.
“Across our company, we are focusing our brand building investments, resources and talent on iconic brands that we believe we can grow around the world” –Campbell Soup CEO Denise Morrison says the firm’s strategy is to build brand equity, which she says will create value for our shareholders.
“We are all undergoing a seismic shift from grocery shopping offline to online” – Gousto co-owner Timo Schmidt expects the company to benefit from the continued growth of the online retail space.
“Danone is currently studying the different steps that led to this situation” – a spokesperson for Danone says the company is yet to make a decision over whether it will launch legal action against New Zealand’s Fonterra.
