Lactalis, France's largest dairy processor, has carried its
wheeling and dealing on into 2006 after signing a deal to buy
Italian cheese producer Galbani.
Dairy Crest, Britain's biggest dairy processor, has denied holding
takeover talks with French dairy giant Lactalis, despite the
emergence of Lactalis documents weighing up the pros and cons of a
deal.
Complex webs of assumptions are spinning a lie about the real value
of today's companies, lulling directors and shareholders alike into
a false sense of value creation.
Arla Foods UK has announced promising progress for the year but
warned farmgate milk prices were likely to fall and consumers will
have to pay more for steep input cost rises.
Lactalis, the largest French dairy processor, has struck a deal
with Dutch dairy Friesland Foods to combine the two groups'
marketing teams in Germany.
Today's board meeting at Parmalat, the first since Enrico Bondi was
appointed as chief executive last week, will help to determine
which direction the Italian dairy giant goes from here.
Britain's Office of Fair Trading is investigating allegations of
price-fixing by top dairy processors as the government agency draws
increasing criticism from the industry.
Dairy Crest saw its profits slashed by half in its first six months
of this year, capping a difficult week for the British dairy
industry and underlining the pressing need for more strategies to
raise earnings.
Dairy processor Robert Wiseman warned farmgate milk prices would
have to fall after profits tumbled 22 per cent in the first half
due to rising oil and energy costs.
The threat of a Competition Commission inquiry has made Robert
Wiseman pull out of a deal to buy Scottish Milk Dairies, as the
dairy consolidation trend puts competition in the spotlight.
Nestlé says it will embrace moves by hard discounters to sell more
branded products as part of its plan to recover from difficult
times on Europe's food and drink market.
Added value dairy and soft drinks lead Danone to a sales rise in
the third quarter, but the firm is banking on a new pricing and
innovation strategy to re-ignite itself at home in France.
The EU's CAP reforms continue to force changes on Europe's dairy
firms as Arla Foods announced it will close a Danish milk powder
plant that is no longer vital for production.
The amount of fake food and drinks entering the EU grew by 200 per
cent last year, with the higher quality of counterfeits making
detection more difficult, the bloc's administrative arm said this
week.
Scandal-hit Italian dairy Parmalat has re-listed on the Milan stock
exchange as potential bidders begin to circle and the group widens
its lawsuit war against the world's major banks.
The UK branch of dairy processor and ingredients supplier Arla
Foods told investors yesterday that it is still on track to reach
revised profit targets for the year, boosted by its brands
performing well.
Dairy producers' losses from Hurricane Katrina could easily exceed
$40m, says a US dairy association, highlighting the prospect of
immeasurable long-term damage and raising questions over when
disaster aid will get through.
French yoghurt and biscuit maker Danone said today that it is not
looking to acquire the Dutch infant nutrition firm Numico, after
rumours that Danone was making a bid pushed up the Dutch group's
shares.
Uncertainty hangs over the UK dairy industry as Dairy Crest says
recent gains will not be enough to stop profits slipping, and rival
Wiseman warns rising costs will be hard to recover.
Coping with reforms to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy has
taken centre-stage for dairy firms across the bloc as Dutch group
Campina outlines a plan to swallow more than €80m of losses in aid
since 2003.
The trial of Calisto Tanzi, founder of scandal-hit Italian dairy
giant Parmalat, commences today amid charges of false accounting
and share price manipulation.
Ireland's prime minister Bertie Ahern has called for the food
industry to support the CAP, at a time when the system is coming
under intense criticism.
Danone's chairman appeared to defend French government proposals
for more transparency from firms during takeover rumours, in an
internal interview concerning the recent PepsiCo gossip.
Ongoing price competition among European retailers has squeezed
prices for international branded foods in recent years, finds new
research from ACNielsen that confirms the pressure will
continue into the near future.
As a further sign that packing companies are about to hike prices
in a big way, two of the industry's associations have told
customers they should expect to pay more their products.
Cash, cash, cash. Castigated as simple asset-strippers out to make
a quick buck, the entrance of private equity onto the food industry
stage has participants chattering in the wings.
France's Carrefour, the world's second largest retailer after
Wal-Mart, has upped the stakes in the supermarket battle for market
share by announcing further price cuts and overseas expansion arein
the offing.
Arla's switch of production from the EU to Saudi Arabia will save
the firm money and help it to benefit from the Middle East's
significant potential for high value diary products.
Irish dairy group Glanbia will be wishing it made a bigger
investment in nutritional ingredients sooner than it did, as it
revealed a 13 per cent drop in half year operating profits
yesterday owing to difficult conditions in chilled...
Coca-Cola's bottling arm has agreed a 10-year, exclusive
distribution deal with functional milk drinks maker Bravo! Foods,
offering Coke a new way to escape stagnant fizzy drinks sales.
Arla Foods' factory re-jig paid off this week as the group signed a
joint-venture deal with China's leading dairy firm to get its added
value milk powder products into one of the world's fastest emerging
dairy markets.
Milk Link's acquisition of Glanbia Foods has proved a mixed bag for
the UK dairy cooperative over the last year - pushing up sales yet
slamming profits into the red amid tough conditions.
Dairy group Arla Foods, under pressure from intense cost pressures,
will cut staff and production at a speciality milk powder plant in
Denmark to help salvage full-year profits.
Against a backdrop of conflicting claims, a controversial pressure
group has dropped Kraft from a lawsuit over misleading advertising
after the firm agreed to update its consumer information.
If anyone doubted that the US probiotics market's star is rising,
kefir-maker Lifeway Foods' latest results, positive in spite of
milk price vagarities, should be enough to convince them.
Nestle, the world's largest food company, depended on its pet
business, beverages and ice creams to keep overall sales growth
humming at 5.2 per cent during the first half of the year, although
Europe remained sluggish at 1.5...