Elsevier Food International
Volume 8, No. 2 May 2005
Brand Vision
Anthony Ruys, executive chairman of Heineken, has to steer the brewer through difficult times. Tough market conditions and the need for a delicate balancing act between different stakeholders – not in the least the Heineken family who own the majority of shares – do not make his job an easy task.
Thony Ruys: An ambitious caretaker
EFI Special
Divestment was a recurring move in 2004 as the world’s top food and drink companies focus on their brands. With the maturity of markets in western Europe and North America, large-scale acquisitions have also dropped compared with previous years. Despite the tough economic climate, the leading companies showed resilience with the top ten suppliers posting a 6.3 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2005.
Food 100: Divestments feature as companies refocus
R&D
Good news for the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). With SQF (Safe Quality Food) 2000 and, recently SQF 1000, GFSI has made the jump across the pond. With the latter standard, GFSI also benchmarked the first agricultural standard. Talks with EurepGAP are on the agenda. Furthermore, the two major ‘GFSI-standards,’ the British Retail Consortium and the International Food Standard, have become more identical.
GFSI expands its reach
Will nanotechnology push borders in the area of food processing? Until 2015, nano-foods are believed to boost sales of tailor-made foods that deliver specific ingredients to target areas in the body. The question remains if and how fast this technology will get a hold in the food sector? Visionaries believe that external factors may speed up the need for this new technique, referring to climate change, need for cost efficiency and population growth as key drivers. This, together with new applications using food as drugs and nutrition, might cause dramatic changes in the food and beverage sector.
Nano-foods: future or fiction?
Country Profile
The grocery industry is still one of the few sectors in Canada where local ownership prevails, and this is unlikely to change. Competition is not only fierce but is also largely dictated by home-grown leaders Loblaw and Sobey’s. For outsiders, finding opportunities in Canada’s retail cracks may mean going beyond one’s traditional strengths. Potential new entrants are also expected to come from across the border such as Walgreen, Albertsons and Target.
Food Watch
Multinational discounters rapidly expanding across the border, is a much discussed topic, especially, since Lidl’s expansionist zeal in recent years. But what about local hard discounters? Some of these have been engaged in this business for many years, yet others began their hard discount activities more recently either to complete their format portfolio, for instance, or in an attempt to protect themselves from the fierce price competition they expect from Lidl and the like.
The compact hypermarket is either a compact version of an existing hypermarket concept or a format used by retailers for a specific brand. The format combines food and non food in a store size of 1,500 metres to 5,000 square metres. Compact hypermarkets are a global phenomenon but have proven to be particularly successful in central and eastern Europe, and in Asia (especially in Thailand and South Korea).
Compact hypermarkets
Real Estate
In a recent report on global retail markets, Deloitte & Touche gave a ‘neither here nor there’ assessment on Russia. What is the real score on the Russian market? Do investors who were quick to jump onto the Russian retail real estate bandwagon face unnecessary risks amid political, security or regulatory concerns?
Instore
Narrowcasting as an advertising tool is aimed at getting the right shoppers at the right place and moment. Sales increases attributed to this advertising tool are estimated at ten per cent or more for some products. Retailers already harnessing the advantages of narrowcasting are Wal-Mart and Tesco of the UK.
Narrowcasting: Reaching hard-to-get shoppers
Fresh Foods
Together with apples, pears are the key product in the top fruit category. Unlike apples, however, pears do not enjoy the same levels of popularity in terms of consumption. In the UK, for example, 22 per cent of domestic spending on fruit went on apples, while 40 per cent of households have not bought pears in the last year.
Retail Profile
Sainsbury’s CEO, Justin King, has had to employ hard measures to turn around the company’s supply chain problems. There are, however, other aspects of modern supermarket retailing that Sainsbury’s seriously needs to address.
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