Italian food group Parmalat said on Monday that it had a net debt
of €14.3 billion ($17.6 billion) in September 2003, almost eight
times the figure given by former managers of the troubled group.
After conducting an internal review, Tetra Pak has categorically
stated that all payments made to disgraced Italian dairy giant
Parmalat were made directly to local Parmalat companies.
There is a defining issue for dairy giant Parmalat that has
virtually nothing to do with fraud. If it lives to trade another
day, it will be because it hung on to its suppliers.
Danone, the French dairy product, bottled water and biscuits group,
may have said that it is not interested in acquiring any assets of
bankrupt Italian group Parmalat, but this does not mean that it is
not on the acquisition trail.
The emergency decree passed late last month by the Italian
government in a bid to save dairy giant Parmalat from collapse
looks set to win support from the European Commission on the back
of guarantees that there will be no state...
Tetra Pak has launched an internal enquiry following claims by a
former Parmalat executive that the world's largest packaging group
made payments directly to the accounts of Parmalat's owners, the
Tanzi family.
As the scandal surrounding Italy's food and giant Parmalat deepens,
Berlusconi's government rustles up emergency measures to tackle
'Europe's Enron', with a strategy to save jobs and pay the
suppliers.
In a bid to reinforce customer relations in Latin America, the
dairy ingredients business unit of DSM Food Specialties' has
expanded its presence in Latin America with the opening of a new
sales and customer services office in...
Things just keep going from bad to worse for Parmalat. Just a week
after it escaped defaulting on a bond repayment by the skin of its
teeth, and with barely enough time for new chairman and turnaround
expert Enrico Bondi to warm his...
Lactimilk, the subsidiary of Spanish group Ebro Puleva which
produces the Leyma, Ram and El Castillo brands, is to invest
between €36 and €45 million over the next three years in
relaunching all three brands.
Set against the backdrop of difficult trading conditions for
branded food manufacturers, raw material prices and a negative
currency impact played down first half figures for ingredients
giant Danisco.
One of Switzerland's best known food products, chocolate, may have
suffered terribly during the heatwave this summer, but the
country's ice cream producers put in a contrasting performance.
Dairy giant Arla Foods has posted slightly increased profits of DKK
1,094 million (€147m) for the 2002/03 financial year - but it's not
been all plain sailing. Facilities have been closed and the Swedish
vote against the Euro...
Three Dutch cheese processors have joined forces in an attempt to
produce and market goat's milk products. Heijkoop, De Jong and CBM
believe that a combined effort can increase their efficiency and
market strength as well as...
Yeo Valley believes that its range of Natural yoghurt, which was
released as a revived fat-free 1-kilo pack earlier in the year, has
helped to strengthen the natural yoghurt market after what the
company described as a levelling off...
The finances of Parmalat, the Italian dairy group, hit the
headlines again last week with the announcement that it planned to
liquidate its €496.5 million investment in the Cayman Islands-based
Epicurum fund - an investment which...
Dairy Crest has today announced its unaudited results for the six
months ended 30 September 2003. The results have revealed that the
spreads business has become the company's most profitable sector.
The company says that this...
The Competition Authority in Denmark is investigating claims by a
smaller dairy group that Arla Foods, the country's biggest milk
group, has offered milk at unreasonably low prices to the Dansk
Supermarked retail chain.
Glanbia, the Irish dairy product maker, has joined forces with
Cussons, the UK group best known for its Imperial Leather soap, to
produce and market milk powder for the Nigerian market.
The continued focus on dairy, rice and sugar products helped
Spain's Ebro Puleva to a 15 per cent increase in profits during the
first nine months of the year. But sales were lower as result of
various disposals over the past...
Nestlé expects to show organic sales growth of around 5-6 per cent
for the year as a whole, twice that of its closest European rival,
Unilever. Nine-month sales were boosted by the hot summer weather,
particularly for ice cream and...
Nestlé is continuing to strengthen its position in the global ice
cream market with the formation of a joint venture in Sweden, a
market where it has not been present before now. The Glasskiosken
venture with Ingman Foods aims to...
It would appear that Eastern Europe's appetite for yoghurts and
milk-based desserts is growing. Russian dairy giant Wimm-Bill-Dann
(WBD) has just installed a new €7 million production line at its
Kharkov dairy plant in Kharkov,...
Arla Foods and Express Dairies have been given the go ahead to
merge their UK businesses after the Competition Commission found no
evidence that the deal would adversely impact the liquid milk
market.
Royal Numico has announced the sale of its Mumbai-based dairy and
baby food activities Nutricia India to a consortium of four Indian
companies, for an undisclosed sum.
There is increasing speculation regarding the future of French
dairy-to-biscuits group Danone, good Q3 results expected next week,
will simply fuel the speculation further.
Ireland's Kerry group has continued its rapid expansion programme,
a new purchases in the US will see the group add a speciality sauce
maker and a fruit flavour producer to its fast-growing portfolio.
Lactalis, one of the world's largest dairy companies, has
strengthened its position in the health food sector via a stake in
Cema, a French company whose low-fat spread Primavere has been a
great success.
Alcoa has announced that its Alcoa Closure Systems International
(CSI) business is set to expand further into the $100 million dairy
packaging business.
Swedish dairy giant Arla has presented an ambitious strategy for
future growth. This sets out a broad outline of how the business
will be developed over the next decade.
Russian dairy giant Wimm-Bill-Dann has increased its stake in Ufamolagroprom, the biggest milk processor in the southern Urals and one of the most modern cheese producers in Russia.
Belgian firm Cosucra Groupe Warcoing is exiting the sugar beet
processing business to concentrate entirely on added value
ingredients for health foods, it announced this week.
When Cyclone Hudah struck the island of Madagascar in April 2000
destroying 15 per cent of the world's vanilla crop the news sent
prices rocketing for the peoples favourite ice cream ingredient.
The decision not to join the single European currency will have a
negative effect on one of Sweden's biggest food companies, Arla
Foods, which has operations in the UK, Denmark and Sweden.
The decisions over who will buy the Safeway retail chain and
whether the Arla/Express Dairies merger will proceed could have a
significant impact on Scottish dairy group Robert Wiseman Dairies.
After a year of acquisitions and the launch of numerous innovative
products, Swiss dairy group Emmi is well on track to meet its
growth targets for 2003.
The Italian food group, Parmalat said that its sales in the
Americas were devastated by the appreciation of the euro against
the US and Canadian dollar during the first half.
Russia's leading dairy producer Wimm-Bill-Dann continued with its
solid double-digit sales growth in the first half of 2003, although
the cost of expansion weighed heavily on profits.
