As the week draws to an end and the industry prepares to take a Christmas break, Sainsbury’s found itself responding to reports its chief exective Justin King may only be staying on in his role for a few months in the New Year. Elsewhere, yoghurt group Chobani dismissed reports it is looking at a listing, while Barilla spoke to just-food about its plans for expansion in Latin America.
“From Day One that was not my motive. That’s not what I want to do. This is a road that I don’t want to exit from” – The founder of US yoghurt group Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, says he wants the company to remain independent, despite reports it is looking at an IPO.
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“This is pure speculation. Justin has made his commitment to the business clear and is excited about the opportunities to grow and develop it. Any discussion of succession is totally premature” – a Sainsbury’s spokesperson dismisses reports its chief executive Justin King may step down in February.
“[Emerging markets] are markets we want strongly to invest in. Here we aim to increase the share of our business from 5% to 20% by 2020” – a spokesperson for Italian food group Barilla tells just-food Latin America, particularly Brazil, is one market where Barilla sees demand for its core products.
“With a great lineup of new products and strong levels of marketing support behind new and established brands, we remain very excited about our US cereal business, and we expect sales growth for Big G in the second half of this year” – Ian Friendly, COO of General Mills’ US retail business says he is optimistic about the outlook for the company’s domestic cereal arm.
“The integration of Wise Foods and Inalecsa reinforces our confidence in this segment of the snack industry as an important vehicle for creating value for our shareholders, in areas that are highly complementary to our core business” – Arca chairman Manuel Barragan Morales on the firm’s acquisition of Wise Foods and of snacks firm Industrias Alimenticias Ecuatorianas, or Inalecsa.
“Our already strong position within salmon farming will be further strengthened and our presence within value added processing activities will take a giant leap through this transaction” – Chairman of Norweigan seafood group Marine Harvest, Ole-Eirik Lerøy says the acquisition of its 48.5% stake in Morpol was part of the company’s ambition to be a “world-leading integrated protein group”.
“The challenge is to build upon the success that has been achieved in recent years and the solid foundations that have been laid” – Euan Sutherland on his plans following his appointment as CEO of UK retailer The Co-operative Group.
“For us it is more difficult to get into contact with those retailers and for [Bongrain] it is easier as they have access” – a spokesperson for Dutch dairy firm FrieslandCampina explains that its JV with Bongrain to sell branded cheese in France will give it access to major retailers in the country.
“All the other allegations against us in this ten year process have already been dropped” – Tesco’s response on its partial victory in a long-running Office of Fair Trading investigation into dairy price-fixing.
“It’s a constrained market in that we can get the data and cover a lot of territory very effiicently and also it’s very representative” – Roger Jackson, founder of retail data service provider ShopperIQ explains the reason for testing the system in Australia.
