ReleaseWire

TraceGains offered a highly requested webinar addressing the impetus for creating the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) on May 15. Special guests, Karil Kochenderfer and John Kukoly discussed its benefits, and basic steps to support food manufacturers on the process to becoming compliant.

In 2013, although heavily dependent on snacks, PepsiCo posted strong financials, and again increased its returns to investors. Recent acquisitions/joint ventures, such as Tingyi, Muller Quaker Dairy and Wimm-Bill-Dann, helped Pepsi in promoting its "one product" strategy, leveraging synergies between snacks and beverages. As well as hot cereals and bakery, the company is now also expanding in dairy and nutrition through innovation, while maintaining robust growth in attractive emerging markets.

Mars is a global leader in confectionery and also maintains a strong presence in dried processed food and sauces, dressings and condiments. The company continues to have a strong mature market bias but as growth begins to cool in China there are opportunities to move into high-growth categories in both mature markets as well as underexploited markets such as Brazil.

In a global sense, Orkla has only a modest presence. However, regionally the company is a leader in a number of packaged food categories. Orkla's recent acquisition of Rieber & Son has given it a stronger presence in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, its ongoing attempts to restructure are creating a more streamlined and focused business.

Since its inception in the year 2007, Zhejiang based Anny’s Plastic Tableware, has emerged as a name synonymous with quality, affordability and flexibility. The company is one of the most reliable, renowned and reputable manufacturer and exporter of food packaging and catering products. The company offers a wide assortment of food packaging and catering products that include disposable plastic cups, disposable plastic glasses, disposable plastic cutlery, thermoformed plastic plates and bowls, elegant injected plastic plates and bowls, aluminum foils, foil containers and disposable foil bake ware, imprinted plastic cups, plastic dessert tableware and much more. The products on offer come in varied sizes and models that perfectly meet the needs and requirements of people at large. Moreover, all the products listed in the inventory come at enviably low prices.

General Mills continues its worldwide growth in packaged food, although it is challenged in key categories by lower growth in the mature US market. Integration of its key acquisitions (Yoki Alimentos SA and the Yoplait brand) has propelled the company into Brazil and emerging markets. If General Mills can leverage its Brazilian channels to promote sweet and savoury snacks and snack bars via sports, it could repeat value sales gains achieved at the London 2012 Olympics here in 2014 and 2016.

The local packaged food market is expected to remain vibrant in 2013, reporting current value growth of 5%. The dynamic economic performance in the Philippines helped to boost incomes, which led to higher purchasing power. Meanwhile, consumers' confidence also increased, and encouraged spending amongst all income groups. Filipinos' consumption of packaged food was also encouraged by manufacturers' efforts to push their products via traditional means such as tri-media campaigns and price...

When it comes to catering to varying plastic ware, kitchenware, tableware, catering, and food packaging related needs of consumers, none surpasses the expertise of folks at Anny’s Plastic Tableware. For more than six years now, the Zhejiang Province, China based company has been doing commendable job in offering unique kitchenware solutions to customers. Accordingly, the company enjoys a decent client base in China and abroad as well. Since the year Anny’s Plastic Tableware started providing its services to clients, it has been quite successful in carving a special niche for itself. The company offers quality products to target clientele at the most reasonable prices. Recently, the company has revivified its range of Plastic Dessert Tableware with new additions.

This Thursday, May 15, 2014 at 12:00 PM EST. TraceGains is offering a highly requested webinar addressing the impetus for creating the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), its benefits, and basic steps to support food manufacturers on the process to becoming compliant.

2013 saw Mondelez International Inc complete its first full year as a separate company after its split from Kraft Foods Inc and remains the second largest packaged food company globally. With a streamlined product portfolio focussing on confectionery, biscuits and dairy, Mondelez has been able to take advantage of higher growth rates in emerging markets. Euromonitor International evaluates the opportunities and challenges the company will face in the global packaged food market environment.

While the Romanian economy saw slight growth in 2013, consumer purchasing power remained low across large segments of the population. After a period of economic boom between 2006 and 2008, when packaged food recorded high retail value sales growth, the economic crisis that followed resulted in a decline in disposable income levels and a significant slowdown in growth. In 2013, Romanians became more optimistic about the future, which saw packaged food record relatively dynamic, albeit single...

A brighter macroeconomic outlook in combination with restored consumer confidence resulted in a marginally positive performance in both volume and current value terms in 2013. Nevertheless, prolonged years of economically stringent times led to polarisation, whereby a large proportion of consumers opted for value for money alternatives, whilst at the same time they prioritised everyday luxury products as a result of avoiding more significant purchases.

Value sales performance for packaged food was positive during 2013, increasing by 3%. Nonetheless, 2013 value growth was lower than the growth witnessed in 2012 and the CAGR over the review period. Higher value growth during the review period was in part due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) increase which took place in October 2010. The New Zealand economy was in a state of recovery during 2013, which in turn drove both value and volume growth. Whilst consumers still faced discretionary...

Despite the ongoing unpleasant economic situation and cutting of consumers' expenditure, sales of packaged food in Slovakia are expected to gain growth. Preferences of cheaper, private label and products purchased predominantly during discounts and price promotions drive sales. During the difficult economic times, Slovak consumers saved money and tried to limit both the volume and value size of their shopping basket. People also saved due to using up the purchased goods, rather than waste food...

The economic situation in the Czech Republic slowly improved over the review period, although remained unstable in 2013, which was reflected in its predicted moderate current value growth, with a general decline in volume sales for packaged food. The highest value increase is set to be recorded by meal solutions, followed by nutrition/staples and impulse and indulgence products.

The fragile Serbian economy was not immune to the effects of economic crisis, which started in the country in early 2009. The crisis was most obvious during 2009 and 2010, which caused a decrease in employment in Serbia. Consequently, consumers' purchasing habits drastically changed, causing a decline in sales of non-essential packaged food products, as well as a shift to cheaper packaged food product types and cheaper brands within all packaged food categories. In spite of the fact that even...

Consumption continued to be restrained both in volume and in value terms, as recession-led factors meant that economic performance in Portugal in 2013 was weaker than previously anticipated. A rise in unemployment, a drop in birth rate and population, a trend toward savings, and a decrease in income per family resulted in stagnation in volume sales across a range of packaged food categories, alongside a clear downward trend in volume terms as far as foodservice is concerned.

Packaged food is expected to see only sluggish sales growth for the review period as a whole. This will chiefly be due to maturity in many product areas. In addition, economic concerns are resulting in many consumers seeking to keep expenditure to a minimum, while this is also encouraging strong price competition among the leading grocery retailers. Sales growth for packaged food is also being hindered by Austria's slow population growth and a poor performance for tourism.

CPW is a joint venture between General Mills and Nestle to target non-North American breakfast cereals. Its portfolio includes some of the leading brands in the category. It is also present in snack bars although it has retrenched over the review period as the partners chose to pursue their own individual interests rather than those of CPW. The company however, remains overly reliant on the mature Western European market and has struggled with competition from Kellogg in Latin America.

Packaged food market volume performance is expected to increase at the same levels as the pre-revolution years after it faced a slowdown in growth in 2011. The market has been predominantly driven by sales in artisanal bread and rice, which are the foundations of the Egyptian market, accounting for 79% of market volume in 2013. However, higher growth rates are limited by the continued competition from unpackaged and traditional alternatives.

Tiger Brands is the number one player in South African packaged food and a top five player in the wider Middle East and Africa region. The company has been gradually expanding in other African markets but continues to generate the vast majority of its sales in South Africa, particularly in rice, confectionery and canned processed food. Many of its brands are South African household staples.

Despite supply shortages and inflationary price increases, demand for packaged food will still witness volume growth in 2013 that is above the population growth rate. Supply shortage of essential products like milk, baker strikes causing some delays in channel distribution, and the weakening Tunisian dinar have collectively raised unit prices across the packaged food market. This is worsened by reduced supply issues caused by informal exportation to Libya due to higher margins for wholesalers.

Packaged food benefited in 2013 from increasing demand for convenience, urbanisation and players' efforts. Many categories are set to record strong sales growth in 2013, benefiting from consumers' fast-paced urban lifestyles. These categories are frozen food, instant noodles, breakfast cereals and drinking milk products. Manufacturers are also keen to add more variety to their products while trying to keep prices unchanged amid inflationary costs.

TraceGains, a web-based, full-service supplier, compliance, and regulatory document management solution, explored the popularity of “natural foods” and the implications for food manufacturers and suppliers. Jennifer Brusco, TraceGains’ Marketing Specialist, interviewed Antonio Gallegos, Counsel at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, to clarify “natural” labeling for food industry.

The performance of packaged food improved over the review period, thanks to growth in the retail infrastructure, the growing population and a robustly growing economy. Nutrition/staples grew on the back of the population surge, whereas growing health awareness helped to increase sales of niche products.