Insider Flash: Cadbury sues Amcor for overcharging / Australia

21/12/2006 - Confectionery giant Cadbury Schweppes is suing Australian packaging company Amcor for more than A$120 million (€71.5m) over claims that Amcor overcharged for cardboard and PET plastic bottles while operating a price-fixing cartel with packaging rival Visy.

Cadbury filed a claim with the Federal Court of Australia on 15 December, seeking compensation for the alleged cartel and also alleging that the cartel extended beyond the cardboard price-fixing over which the competition regulator is currently prosecuting Visy.

Cadbury is the first major Amcor customer to take action against the packaging group, according to The Australian newspaper.

Amcor alerted Australia's competition authority to the price-fixing in late 2004 in return for immunity from prosecution but the evidence filed against Visy has left Amcor open to attack from customers seeking compensation for alleged overpayment.

Thousands of its smaller customers are taking on the packaging giant in a class action filed in April that seeks up to A$300 million in damages. But 11 major customers named by the ACCC as victims of the cartel, including Coca-Cola Amatil, Goodman Fielder, Cadbury Schweppes and Lion Nathan, had all remained silent on the matter until now, said the paper.

Cadbury alleges that Amcor overcharged it by $46 million for cardboard boxes. And although Amcor has said that the alleged price-fixing never affected its other businesses, Cadbury is also alleging that Visy and Amcor agreed not to poach each other's customers in the PET plastic bottle and aluminium can market, which led to Cadbury being overcharged at least a further $40million.

In addition, by breaching three separate contracts, Amcor had been "unjustly enriched" by a further $33.2 million from 2000 to 2004, bringing the total to around $120 million, reported the paper.

In a statement, Amcor said that the action filed by Cadbury appears "to adopt portions of the ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] proceeding in relation to the cardboard business". These allegations "are yet to be proved in court and have been denied by Visy".

Amcor said Cadbury's allegations regarding supply contracts and additional cartel conduct in areas other than cardboard "appear to be widely speculative".

"Amcor will be vigorously defending these allegations and is considering making application to the court for a strike-out at the appropriate time. "

It said that it regretted that its valued customer had issued such proceedings and hoped that the dispute could be resolved amicably.

Source: ap-foddtechnology.com http://www.ap-foodtechnology.com/news/ng.asp?n=72986&m=2APFD21&c=nxfbrgitrbnpklu

Insider Flash: Danone sets up joint venture with China's Mengniu

19/12/2006 - French biscuits, water and yoghurt group Danone said yesterday that it had signed a joint venture with China's leading dairy Mengniu to cooperate in the production and distribution of fresh dairy products in China.

The joint venture will combine Mengniu's market-leading position with Danone's technology and marketing know-how to offer Chinese consumers high quality dairy products, said Danone in a statement.

Danone already has a stake in Shanghai-based Bright Dairy, which produces and markets Danone brand yoghurts in China. But Bright Dairy has seen sales and profits decline in recent years, partly due to a scandal linked to the reprocessing of some of its products in the south.

Inner Mongolia-based Mengniu and another dairy in that region, Yili, have risen to the top of the sector during this time, and with growing competition in the Chinese dairy industry, foreign players like Danone are increasingly seeking a larger piece of the action by getting more involved in production.

Danone's news follows last week's announcement by Fonterra that it would set up a dairy farm with its joint venture partner SanLu in China. Both foreign players have underlined their know-how in producing quality products, and as incomes rise, Chinese consumers are spending more on what they perceive to be higher quality.

Mengniu has recently launched a premium milk brand, Telunsu, backed by a major advertising campaign as it seeks to create a differentiated, higher margin product. Mengniu said today that it will invest CNY1.6 billion (€155m) in the production and sale of fresh dairy products under the joint venture, with CNY381.5 million worth of production facilities and properties.

Danone is already the leading producer of bottled water and biscuits in China and posted sales of around €1.2 billion there last year. Under the new agreement with Mengniu, in which it holds a 49 per cent share, it will be aiming to increase its share of the dairy market, which still has considerable room for growth.

Per capita consumption is still very low, at an average 20kg, but this is expected to increase to 30kg in 2015
Source: ap-technology.com

F&N raises funds for food and beverage growth / Singapore

12/12/2006 - Singapore conglomerate Fraser and Neave has sold a 14.9 per cent stake in the group to raise funds for expansion of its food and beverage business.

The group raised approximately S$900 million (€443m) in a share sale to state-owned investor Temasek holdings, it announced on Friday.

F&N chief executive Dr Han Cheng Fong said Temasek's participation would "strengthen the growth potential of F&N's food and beverage business" .

"We have well-known brands in the Asia Pacific such as Tiger, F&N, 100Plus, Ice Mountain, Magnolia and Nutrisoy, all of which have great potential to grow beyond their existing markets," he said.

The group is also looking to acquire brands and businesses in the region to increase its presence in the food and beverage sector. In October it signed a RM310 million (€67.2m) deal with Nestlé for the rights to produce and sell the Swiss group's liquid milk products in south-east Asia.

That deal will more than double current annual turnover at F&N's dairy operations to more than RM1.5 billion, and give it significant economies of scale to reduce the impact of high raw material costs.

"We really want to see a more balanced portfolio. We see the opportunities in food and beverage and we hope to make more acquisitions in areas such as beer, milk and soft drinks," Dr Cheng Fong told a media briefing.

Temasek said in a statement that its acquisition of 205.5 million shares in F&N was its "most substantial" investment in the food and beverage sector in recent years.

F&N earned a net profit of S$432 million during 2005/06, up 15 per cent from a year ago with sales up 8.8 per cent to S$3.8 billion. Brewing and properties were largely responsible for the growth however as weak consumer demand hit soft drinks sales in Malaysia.

Source: ap-foodtechnology.com / By Dominique Patton

Enviga lawsuit hangs over Coke, Nestlé / USA

07/12/2006 - Coca-Cola and Nestlé face a potential lawsuit in the US over claims that their new Enviga energy drink can help consumers burn off calories.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) said it would sue both firms if they did not stop making the claim on Enviga, a green tea-based energy drink set for official launch in January.

The announcement coincided with a US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) hearing on how to regulate labelling and health claims for functional foods and beverages, such as Enviga, which have no legal category of their own to date.

It is the optimum combination of Enviga's green tea, caffeine and plant micronutrient content which creates the ‘negative calorie effect', according to chief Coca-Cola scientist Rhona Applebaum.

The formula was made possible through access to decades of research on green tea by the Nestlé Research Center in Switzerland. It found the tea contained a powerful antioxidant, EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), which could speed up metabolism and energy use when combined with caffeine.

Tests have shown that drinking three cans of Enviga everyday could burn an extra 60-100 calories in thin to normal weight people, the firms announced.

CSPI accused both companies of misleading advertising, alleging that evidence for Enviga's ‘negative calorie' effect was not substantial.

It also criticised the drink's caffeine content, around 300g in one can, which sits right at the top end of the maximum daily intake advised by the American Dietetic Association. The same limit is advised in the UK by the country's Food Standards Agency.

Some scientists in the US recently called for all caffeinated drinks to show caffeine content on their labels, even carbonated sodas. Current caffeine levels in drinks were not clear enough for consumers, their article, published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology, said.

“In certain people, consumption of caffeine causes serious health effects, such as anxiety, palpitations, irritability, difficulty sleeping and stomach complaints,” said Dr Bruce Goldberger, one of the researchers.

Source: beveragedaily.com / By staff reporter

Meiji launches fresh milk in China

05/12/2006 - Asia’s biggest dairy, Japan’s Meiji, has started shipping pasteurized milk directly to Shanghai from Japan, the first time a foreign dairy has supplied fresh milk to the rapidly growing market.

The move underscores the rising competition among foreign players for a share of China's dairy market. Meiji has supplied ice-cream to China since 1995 but last month it introduced liquid milk for the first time.

It says the ultrapasteurised ESL milk has a shelf-life of 15 days, allowing for five days spent in transport and customs and a further 10 days on sale in Shanghai supermarkets. But at a price of CNY38 per litre, the company is restricting its sales to a tiny niche of consumers.

Most Chinese milk costs a sixth of this price, with high-end Chinese milk, such as Mengniu's Telunsu brand or Yili's Jindian brand, still less than half the cost of Meiji's.

Jin Xuhua, marketing manager from Meiji (Shanghai), said the milk will mainly be sold in Japanese-owned supermarkets in Shanghai, targeting the city's large Japanese population as well as Taiwanese consumers.

“There are about 300,000 Taiwanese here who will prefer Meiji milk, since the taste is much more similar with what they have in Taiwan,” Jin told AP-Foodtechnology.com.

Meiji will test the product in Shanghai over the next year, adding yoghurt and other dairy products to the range.

“Though we are very optimistic about the sales, we are still waiting to see whether this price can work in China,” added Jin.

The milk costs two to three times more than in Japan. Nevertheless the firm is expecting sales of milk and its other products to reach JPY100 million by the end of next year.

Demand for dairy products in China has more than doubled in the past five years, and though domestic milk production is growing rapidly, China is only able to produce 24 million tonnes a year (liquid milk equivalents) of dairy products per year, according to Rabobank.

Although production of raw milk has been growing at a faster rate than demand recently, consumption is still expected to increase from an average 20kg per capita now to 30kg in 2015.

The market is also becoming more sophisticated with consumers moving from milk powder to UHT milk and Chinese consumers becoming more brand conscious to ensure quality and food safety, according to the bank.

Wang Dingmian, deputy chairman of Guangdong Dairy Industry Association, said that Meiji's quality is “a lot better than our own”, due to their more advanced techniques in maintaining the freshness of raw milk and controlling temperature.

“The most obvious difference is that Meiji's milk has a natural and strong fragrance which Chinese milk lacks,” he told AP-Foodtechnology.com.

Although the price will limit its appeal to Chinese customers and the market will be further restricted to the coastal area for logistic reasons, Wang said the move could trigger fiercer competition.

It may also encourage Chinese companies to pay more attention to new processing techniques and higher quality, trends that will ultimately influence their survival in the market, he said.
Interviews by Pan Yan.

Source: ap-foodtechnology.com

Tetra Pak Completes Carlisle Process Acquisition, USA.

LUND, Sweden, Dec 01, 2006 -- Tetra Pak has completed the transaction of Carlisle Process Systems (CPS) from Carlisle Companies Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Integration of CPS activities into Tetra Pak existing cheese activities began Friday, Tetra Pak said. The new entity, Tetra Pak Cheese and Powder Systems, will be led by Tim High, currently president of CPS.

"By adding these products to our current portfolio, we will be able to offer customers complete production solutions for cheese plants including whey powder, and for milk powder plants. In the USA, CPS has a particularly well-established position in the cheese market and the transaction provides Tetra Pak with a better platform for servicing this important market," said Dennis Jönsson, Tetra Pak president and CEO.

CPS develops and manufactures equipment for cheese and powder production through brands including Scherping, Damrow, and Scheffers. In 2006 the CPS sales revenues is expected to be around USD100 million and the number of employees just over 300.

"The product portfolio and geographic coverage are extremely complimentary. The rationale for the transaction is driven by providing a complete product portfolio and better service for our customers," said Sam Strömerstén, president, Tetra Pak Processing Systems.

Source: foodpacific.com

SIG and Unicef: Water is Life

It is no secret that, in many parts of the world, the dearest wishes of childhood are considerably more existential than in other countries. To contribute to providing survival basics for people in need, this year, packaging expert SIG has decided once again to support a relief project instead of giving business associates expensive Christmas gifts. The company is helping the United Nations children's relief project, UNICEF, with a Christmas donation of 80,000 EUR.

UNICEF's relief project in the Sudan is called Water is life. In the Sudan, in the north-eastern corner of Africa, extreme water shortage is a feature of everyday life for most people. More than half of the country's rural population has no access to clean water. Recurrent droughts cause the water supply system to collapse time and again. Many children suffer from diarrhoea, worm infestations and inflammation of the eyes - mostly caused by polluted water.

SIG's donation will be used in the Kordofan region, which is particularly badly affected. UNICEF is building wells and sanitary facilities in the region. With the help of the SIG donation, UNICEF will be able to drill five wells, catering for 2,000 people, and equip them with sturdy hand-pumps. "In addition, our donation will be used to equip five schools with separate sanitary facilities for girls and boys, to improve sanitation", says Dr Josef Collin, Head of Corporate Services at SIG in Linnich, who has been personally involved with humanitarian aid projects for many years. On a number of occasions, he has initiated major projects on SIG's behalf, to support people in emergency in cooperation with UNICEF, and has been on-site to report on the progress of the projects. It was in this way, for example, that SIG supported

UNICEF's 'School in a box' project with a Christmas donation in 2003.

This donation provided study materials for 26,400 children in Afghanistan.

"As an international group of companies, social responsibility is a given for us. That's why we've been supporting various relief projects around the world for years", says Rolf-Dieter Rademacher, CEO of SIG.

This is how the link with UNICEF was first established. UNICEF works throughout the world to provide children with their basic needs for survival. With regard to their ongoing development work, the organisation mainly focuses on health, balanced nutrition, clean water, education, HIV/AIDS and shelter. At the forefront of the relief work activities are caring for AIDS orphans, and the fight against mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus. In addition, UNICEF works to support children affected by war, refugee children, child soldiers, child labourers, and displaced and trafficked children, and the organisation campaigns to reduce poverty.

Tetra Pak Launches first Germina Packaging in Spain

Company: J. García Carrión

Products :
100% pure mandarin juice
100% pure orange juice
100% pure grape juice

Market:
Spain

Packaging:
Tetra Gemina 1000 ml

Opening:
Stream cap

Brand:
Don Simón

Launch:
December 2006

Price: 0,96 €

Distribution: Carrefour

Grameen-Danone JV to Produce Yogurt for Bangladeshi Kids

DHAKA, Nov 09, 2006

Grameen Danone Foods Ltd., a joint company formed in March by Grameen Group, owned by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Grameen Bank, and French food company Groupe Danone, will produce the yogurt for malnourished Bangladeshi children.

The company's main aim is to offer fortified food to children from low-income families who often suffer from nutritional deficiencies, the two companies said at a launching ceremony Wednesday in Dhaka.
"Our main mission is to bring healthy food to a maximum number of people," Groupe Danone chairman and CEO Franck Riboud said.

Creating a Market and Jobs
The food company said it will buy the main ingredients of fresh cow's milk and date molasses from local producers, provide factory jobs and involve local villagers in marketing. Farmers also will be offered small loans, or microcredit, to buy cows or automate molasses production to improve their supplies.

"The company is small but the concept it represents is important," said Grameen Group chairman and founder Muhammad Yunus. The micro-finance institution that won the Nobel prize along with Yunus owns and runs four companies.

Yunus said the idea for the joint venture came up during a lunch with Riboud in Paris a year ago. The company hopes to build 50 yogurt plants across Bangladesh over the next decade, he said.

Energy Yogurt
The fortified yogurt will be at manufactured at a plant in Bogra district, 160 kilometers north of Dhaka, this month.

French soccer legend Zinedine Zidane formally inaugurated the factory by inscribing a foundation stone.

"Shoktidoi" -- or energy yogurt -- will be produced from fresh cow milk and date molasses and will be fortified with vitamin A, iron, zinc and iodine. Each 80 gram cup will cost about 5 taka (7 US cents; 6 euro cents). "It will be an affordable, nutritious food that they can consume daily, or at least twice a week," said Emmanuel Faber, vice president of Danone's Asian operations.

Source: foodpacific.com