Kraft Foods is off to a solid start to 2012 in its first quarter (Q1) results driven by sales growth in global biscuits and chocolate and strong performance in emerging markets.
Singapore-based ingredients firm Olam has acquired Nigerian biscuit and candy maker Titanium Holding Company for $167M as it looks to seize upon the developing African market.
Manufacturers are no longer looking to make healthier cookies and biscuits, preferring instead to focus product development on indulgence and portion control, according to a market expert.
Border Biscuits is investing a further £2.5 million to increase manufacturing capabilities and plant capacity over the next 18 months as the Scottish biscuit maker targets a 50% turnover increase over the next few years.
Wirral Borough Council says it ''left no stone unturned'' in trying to persuade Burton’s Foods not to close its Moreton biscuit factory, and even offered the company a £450,000 grant as a sweetener.
Kraft Foods is leveraging the growing trend for chocolate and biscuits in developing markets with the opening of a new $80m production facility in Brazil.
Consumers are less likely to check labels of biscuit, cake, chocolate and confectionery compared to other food categories, according to Harris Interactive, due to the perception that they are indulgence opportunities.
United Biscuits is aiming to switch to rPET for all its thermoformed trays by the end of 2010 in a bid to scale up the amount of recycled packaging in its range.
Wild has developed a new line of flavours for baked goods that are said to be more stable than is usual and have a more intense fruity flavour and aroma.
Many UK biscuit and cake products have reached their salt-reduction
limit, thanks to bakers' efforts to cut salt components, according
to Barbara Gallani, manager of the Food and Drink Federation's
Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate...
UK bakery supplier BakeMark UK, has developed a 'better-for-you'
cookie for the children's snack market in order to introduce
healthier snacking habits to sweet-toothed youngsters.
The UK's second largest biscuit manufacturer, Burton's Foods, has
been acquired by British buy-out firm Duke Capital from US group HM
Capital Partners for what is believed to be around a £200 million
(€292.3m) sum.
Extracts from mangos are a rich source of dietary fibre, both
soluble and insoluble, with good antioxidant properties and can
easily be used in bakery products to boost public consumption, say
Latin American researchers.
UK biscuit maker McVitie's is to cut 33 jobs at its Carlisle
factory, after damage caused by floods in January permanently
disabled four production lines, reducing the plant's total output
by 20 per cent.
Swiss food giant Nestlé has boosted its Romanian production
capacity with the installation of a new chocolate wafer production
line at its Timisoara-based unit, Joe. The investment reflects the
rapid growth of the Romanian snack market,...
A Malaysian firm selling Japanese biscuits has said that it is
considering establishing its own production facility in Malaysia
should initial sales of its products prove attractive to Malaysian
biscuit eaters.
Staff at one of the UK's leading biscuit and snack manufacturers
have been challenged to walk 10,000 steps every day as the company
highlights a link between healthy bodies and healthy profits.
Northern Foods is facing the possibility of a rapid decline in its
biscuit profit margins as its main customers - the British
supermarket groups - seek to cut costs. The company must now decide
whether to invest in new products, or...
Currency translation effects and tough trading conditions in the UK
kept first half sales at Britain's United Biscuits in line with
those seen a year earlier, despite an increased share of sales from
added-value branded products....
Efficient, profitable baking is not just a question of having the
right equipment for the job - it is also knowing how to use it
properly. With this in mind, Spooner Vicars, the UK supplier of
bakery equipment, runs regular customised...
The sweet biscuits market in Asia is set to grow rapidly in coming
years, due mainly to the continuing strength of the China market.
However launches are coming thick and fast throughout the region,
as this week's product launches...
Leading China biscuit manufacturing Fujian Dali Food says that
construction of its new €19 million biscuit factory in Changchun,
Jilin Province, is now well underway, moving it closer towards its
goal of dominating the biscuit market...
Switzerland's sweet and savoury biscuit sector saw a return to
growth in 2003 due entirely to a strong upswing in export sales -
but domestic sales fell for the second year in succession as a
result of cheaper imports from the...
Following its takeover last year, leading Baltic State biscuit
maker Kalev Johvi Tootmine is to stop making its Maiasmokk brand of
biscuits because of excess market competition.
Despite an increasingly competitive environment and the impact of a
global economic downturn the biscuits market in Europe is alive and
well, according to a news report from Esmerk.
Biscuit, confectionery and snacks producers in the UK have to
invest and innovate in order to survive, and the government should
do more to help them, according to a speaker at this week's BCCCA
Technology Conference.
Nestle Rowntree is entering the bite-sized sector with the launch
of Kit Kat Kubes in the UK, the latest company to jump onto the
bandwagon of bite-sized innovations.
Price discounting by retailers and the strength of the Swiss franc
severly reduced exports of biscuits from Switzerland to Germany, by
far the most important foreign market. The situation is no better
at home, with cheap imports reducing...
European consumers are far more cynical about genetically modified
ingredients than their US counterparts, as a study on attitudes to
GM biscuits has shown.
United Biscuits' management in the UK has finally run out of
patience with staff and unions at its Fontaneda plant in Spain. If
all the parties cannot agree on terms for the relocation of staff
to other UB sites by 15 October,...
Bread, biscuits, crisps and french fries, foods frequently eaten by
millions of people around the world, contain alarmingly high
quantities of a cancer-causing chemical, according to Swedish
research released this week. The research...
