Food enzymes contribute a quarter of sales revenue to the overall
enzyme business in the first quarter, says Danish firm Novozymes,
marking a one per cent rise in contribution on the previous year,
writes Lindsey Partos.
McGowans, the Scottish confectionery outfit behind the Highland
Toffee brand, has been bought by a mystery buyer, ending its month
long receivership battle, Tom Armitage reports.
The sale of Danish cocoa butter replacer Aarhus United is 'taking
longer than anticipated' with news today that the majority
stakeholder is still waiting to confirm a buyer, Lindsey Partos
reports.
Cloetta Fazer, the Swedish confectionery group, has finally lost
patience with its perennially underperforming Polish unit, deciding
to close the Gdansk-based company after failing to elicit an
improvement in its performance, writes...
Glisten, the acquisitive UK confectioner, has reported strong first
half figures reflecting its rapid growth, but highlighted the
increasing cost of integrating its growing number of niche
businesses as it seeks to turn itself into...
Industry association Biscosuisse says that Swiss confectionery
sales have risen marginally in 2004, topping last year's
record-breaking turnover figure and notching up an increase in
domestic sales for the first time in four...
Flavours and texturants firm Degussa will shrug off its fruit
preparation business to an American equity company in a sale that
prepares the ground for a total divesture of its remaining food
ingredients unit.
British confectionery manufacturer and retailer Thorntons suffered
along with most of the UK's retail sector over the Christmas
period, but its first half results were buoyed by an otherwise
solid performance from products sold...
Scandinavian confectioner Cloetta Fazer remains optimistic that it
can turnaround flagging Polish sales, despite posting disappointing
2004 operating profits, Tom Armitage reports.
Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever is set to overhaul its
management structure - a move which it claims will help restore
top-line sales growth and allow it to draw a line under what it
called an "unsatisfactory" 2004 performance,...
Swiss chocolatier Lindt & Sprüngli has reported its
highest-ever rate of organic growth for 2004, with its focus on
premium products allowing it to buck the general trend towards
reduced consumption of chocolate in favour of healthier...
Number six global flavours player Takasago International has
established a new division in Shanghai aimed at expanding its
manufacturing and retail presence in China as well cutting costs.
Israeli flavour firm Frutarom, with clear ambitions to become one
of the top ten flavour players, is seeking a listing on the London
Stock Exchange to raise funds for imminent acquisitions.
Barry Callebaut, the world's leading supplier of chocolate to the
confectionery industry, has reported a 6 per cent fall in first
quarter sales revenues to CHF1.15bn (€0.79bn) as squeezed margins
bit into its bottom line. The...
Polish confectionery manufacturer Jutrzenka has finalised financial
arrangements for the acquisition of rights to Nestlé Polska's
Goplana confectionery brand, giving it an instant growth platform
in the steadily expanding sugar...
The bolt-on acquisition of Rhodia Food Ingredients earlier this
year helps boost sales for Danish ingredients and sugar group
Danisco in an otherwise challenging 2004/05 first half.
Major Dutch bakery ingredients firm CSM confirms the sale of its
confectionery unit to focus on core business. The
Diemen/Breda-based company said it expects to complete the sale of
the unit to CVC Capital Partners in the first quarter...
Widespread procurement and more than 100 years in business help
French hydrocolloid producer Colloides Naturels International (CNI)
assure supplies for gum arabic amid global shortfalls in stock,
writes Lindsey Partos.
A breakthrough into the US market boosts the bottom line for UK
natural flavours firm Treatt that saw sales for the year across the
Atlantic rising by over 40 per cent to €10 million, parallel to a
sales dip elsewhere, writes Lindsey...
CSM, the €2.8 billion Dutch bakery ingredients company, is still
hoping for a year end close on the sale of its confectionery unit,
that together with biochemicals, sugar and bakery supplies complete
the CSM stable.
Announcing its half-year results back in September, the UK-based
confectionery group Glisten said that it expected to make further
acquisitions in niche markets, as it sought to build on strong
sales over the last three years....
Privately owned Gelnex, which pioneered the production of type A
pork skin gelatin in South America, has recently opened a beefskin
gelatin plant in Brazil. Philippa Nuttall spoke to the
company's CEO about the challenges the...
Ladco Advanced Engineering, the parent company of Scotland-based
MacIntyre Chocolate Systems, has acquired Petzholdt-Heidenauer
International, in a bid to extend both companies' global reach in
the competitive chocolate processing...
Job cuts and production consolidation for the number four flavours
group Symrise as the equity fund-owned firm says nearly 600 jobs
will go by the end of 2006.
Ambitious Israeli flavours firm Frutarom has doubled its net profit
in the first nine months of the year after bolt-on acquisitions
brought rapid growth to a company that has clear ambitions to
become one of the top ten flavour firms.
Increasing competition on the xanthan gum market leads Danish
ingredients firm Danisco to cut jobs at the recently acquired
Rhodia Food activities in France.
High energy costs bite into margins for the number one pectin
player CP Kelco with the company passing the prices onto the
market, announcing increases for a range of hydrocolloids in its
portfolio.
Barry Callebaut, the world's top supplier of industrial chocolate
to the confectionery industry, has delivered strong profit for the
year, boosted by the integration of recently acquired US
confectionery firm Brach's and...
UK food and ingredients firm Associated British Foods has beaten
full year profit expectations after posting double-digit growth
against a backdrop of firmer commodity pricing and adverse currency
movements. The performance underlines...
Glisten, the UK confectionery group, has started the 2005 financial
year with a bang, with turnover for the first four months some 45
per cent ahead of last year, company chairman Jeremy Hamer told
shareholders at the firm's...
The Nordic region's biggest confectionery producer Cloetta Fazer
has appointed a new distributor for its operations in Norway in a
bid to strengthen its position in that market.
The world's number one caramel colour supplier DD Williamson is
driving deeper into the Nordic countries, signing a deal with
Swedish food distibutor Norfoods to build growth in the
increasingly mature caramel colour market.
Squeezed margins from 'fierce competition' have hit profits at
Swedish oils and fats firm Karlshamns, which this week announced
job cuts in the context of a cost saving programme.
United International Enterprises Limited (UIE), the majority
stakeholder in vegetable oil firm Aarhus United, confirms it will
sell its considerable stake in the Danish firm, due to be divested
by January 2005.
Greater market penetration is expected for Avebe starch products as
Fiske Food Denmark, a distributor of food and beverage ingredients,
links up with the potato starch firm to distribute products from
the Dutch farming co-operative.
French food group Danone has reported steady if unspectacular
growth for the third quarter of the year, with poor weather in much
of northern Europe impacting sales compared to last year's
heatwave-boosted performance.
Ending months of speculation, the flavours and texturants units at
Degussa, Germany's third largest chemicals group, are up for sale
as the firm looks at selling the food ingredients arm or finding a
partner for its business.
A drop in the order book for low carb ingredients will impact sales
in the first quarter of 2005 for wheat protein and starch supplier
MGP Ingredients that has up to now enjoyed soaring revenues on the
back of the fad US diet, that...
KitKat may have lost its crown as the UK's biggest chocolate
countline brand to Cadbury's Dairy Milk last year, but brand owner
Nestlé Rowntree has wasted no time in its bid to regain the top
spot. Extensions of the core...
Northern Foods is to close two of its UK factories with the loss of
1,000 jobs in an attempt to drive down costs as it struggles
against rising raw material bills and price squeezes from
supermarkets.
A strategy of concentrating on a handful of core confectionery
brands has left Sweden's Cloetta Fazer group with significant
overcapacity - and an inevitable programme of factory closures.
The majority shareholder in Danish vegetable oil firm Aarhus United
could soon place its considerable stake on the market, citing a
potential difference in long-term investment interests.
The recent bolt on acquisition of Rhodia Food Ingredients lifted
sales for Danisco in an otherwise challenging first quarter for
2004/2005 but efforts to improve margins appear to be paying off,
writes Lindsey Partos.
Continued consolidation in the hydrocolloid industry seems imminent
as leading pectin supplier Citrico International goes into
liquidation, but the firm's German-based production plant Citrico
GmbH is not up for sale, reports...
