MODEL BEHAVIOUR

I’ve just been reading the Coca-Cola Hellenic Social Responsibility Report for 2008 and I commend it to you as a model for presenting an intelligent business response to society’s increasing demands. It also shows steady progress on a series of vital indicators:

• 63 plants covering 82% of volume certified to ISO 14001 environmental standards.

• 22% less water usage per litre of produced beverage from 3.20 litres in 2002 to 2.48 litres in 2008.

• 28% lower CO2 emissions per litre of produced beverage from 104 grams in 2003 to 75 grams in 2008.

• Significant lightweighting of PET packaging

50cl PET	Coca-Cola	28g in 2005	24g in 2008
33cl glass	Coca-Cola	263g in 2005	210g in 2008
50cl PET	Bottled water	28g in 2005	18g in 2008

with the lowest bottled water PET weight at 50% of the 2005 level.

• 19% average calorie content reduction from 370 calories per litre in 2001 to 290 calories in 2008.

Covering 28 countries, 80 bottling plants, 49,000 employees, €7,000 million sales and 12,000 million litres in 50 informative pages, it’s an impressive read. Go to www.coca-colahellenic.com for more.

FOOD WASTE

Everyone talks about packaging waste despite its value in preserving food. Hardly anyone talks about food waste despite its potentially greater consequences. Until now.

A new book Waste : Uncovering the Global Food Scandal by Tristram Stuart refines earlier research to calculate the amount we throw away in Britain, including:

• 1.6 billion apples a year, 27 per person
• 484 million unopened yogurts
• 2.6 billion slices of bread
• £6 worth of bananas each.

It all adds up to one quarter of our total purchases, around 5.4 million tonnes – yes, 5,400,000,000 kg.

Just as with diet, obesity, exercise and health, we should start practising what we are preached.

FREE MARKET INFORMATION

Times are tough. Budgets are restricted. But knowledge is power. And networking is still valuable.

So Zenith is providing a free appetiser webinar on its new Global Bottled Water Report and on its next Global Bottled Water Congress.

The webinar will give you some insights on current market trends and the leading companies as well as some highlights of the Congress programme. It will last about 30 minutes and is on 30th July at 14.00 continental European time. To register, please go to https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/515157882

For further information, the web links are

Global report www.zenithinternational.com/reports

Global Congress www.zenithinternational.com/events

I’m afraid there is a charge for the actual report and Congress, but both should prove a wise investment with a rapid return.

SMOOTHIES SANS FRONTIERES

Good taste has no limits. Or does it ? The word smoothie has become so appealing that other industry sectors are jumping on the bandwagon.

• Ice cream smoothies were the first to break away.
• Then came alcohol smoothies.

Now two recent French launches, reported in LSA on 2nd July, have really taken a mental leap further.

• A new smoothie depilatory spray guarantees smooth skin in just 3 minutes.
• The latest is a no doubt well supported smoothie bra.

This may have nothing to do with fruit, but it does seem fruity.

FOOD BLISS POINT

Now I know why my wife’s tiramisu takes me to heaven – its literal translation. It triggers my so called bliss point, “the point at which we get the greatest pleasure from sugar, fat or salt.”

But at the optimum bliss level, even if we are full, our appetite may continue to be stimulated. This has been demonstrated by new research at Yale University using a magnificent technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging.

It has led someone who ran the powerful US Food and Drug Administration to conclude: “It is time to stop blaming individuals for being overweight or obese … For millions of people, modern food is simply impossible to resist.”

The global food industry stands accused of conspiring to make foods such as burgers and ketchup, frappuccinos and chocolate “hyper palatable.”

What nonsense. Manufactured food is often extremely good. But most people would still prefer a fine restaurant or simple home cooking.

For once I agree with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who said earlier this year: “There should be no doubt that maintaining a healthy weight must be the responsibility of individuals first.”

I am grateful for this story to The Sunday Times, which often hits my weekend reading bliss point.

35 MORE ACQUISITIONS IN MAY/JUNE

11 were in beer, 9 in dairy, 4 in soft drinks, 3 in spirits and 3 in ingredients.

The US featured in 13, UK 8, China 5 and Denmark 3. Most were across borders. Almost every major economy was affected, but not Russia this time.

3 were Anheuser-Busch InBev divestments and 3 more were disposals by Dairy Farmers of Britain.

Apr 09	Sugar	Associated British Foods from UK completes purchase of Azucarera Ebro in Spain
May 09	Beer	Asahi from Japan completes purchase of 19.9% stake in Tsingtao of China from Anheuser-Busch InBev	$667 m
	Foodservice	Canada’s MTY Food Group completes purchase of Country Style Food Services	C$16 m
	Beer	Kohlberg Kravis Roberts from US buys Oriental Brewery of Korea from Anheuser-Busch InBev	$1.8 bn
	Beer	China’s Chen Fashu buys 7% stake in Tsingtao from Anheuser-Busch InBev	$235 m
	Bottled water	Romanian businessman loan Balan buys Bere Mures mineral water division from Heineken Romania
	Dairy	Lala from Mexico buys National Dairy in US from Dairy Farmers of America
	Beer	SABMiller from UK to buy remaining 28% of Kompania Piwowarska in Poland	$1.1 bn
	Beer	Asia Pacific Breweries joint venture between Heineken and Fraser & Neave buys remaining 33% of APB Pearl in India from Jaipuria	$4 m
	Dairy	Parmalat from Italy to buy some National Foods dairy assets in Australia from Kirin of Japan	A$70 m
	Soft drinks	UK Aimia Foods buys Spring Cool Soft Drinks from Novbev	£3 m sales
	Dairy	UK Meadow Foods buys Nene Valley Foods from Dairy Farmers of Britain
	Spirits	Campari from Italy completes purchase of Wild Turkey in US from Pernod Ricard of France	$581 m
	Beer	UK Molson Coors buys 50.1% of Cobra	£14 m
Jun 09	Beer	Poland’s Van Pur completes purchase of Koszalin brewery from Royal Unibrew of Denmark	DKK35 m
	Ingredients	Barry Callebaut Sweden to buy Eurogran of Denmark from MISP Holding of Denmark	€28 m sales
	Ingredients	US Sensory Effects buys emulsified powder business from Associated British Foods of UK
	Dairy	UK Milk Link to buy Llandyrnog creamery from Dairy Farmers of Britain
	Dairy	UK Lactalis to buy Lubborn creamery from Dairy Farmers of Britain
	Dairy	US PepsiCo and Saudi Almarai joint venture International Dairy and Juice buys 75% of Jordan’s Teeba from Almarai
	Meat	Brazil’s Sadia and Perdigão to merge and form Brasil Foods
	Beer	China’s Tsingtao to buy Jinan Beer	$37 m
	Beer	Norwegian investors to buy 80% of Arendal brewery from Carlsberg
	Beverages	China’s Andre Juice and Uni-President form joint venture	RMB200 m
	Dairy	US Kohlberg Kravis Roberts takes significant minority in China’s Modern Dairy
	Soya	Dean Foods from US to buy Alpro from Vandemoortele of Belgium	€325 m
	Flavours	Frutarom from Israel to buy Savory Functional Systems in Germany from Chr Hansen of Denmark	$7 m
	Spirits	US Fortune Brands buys Effen vodka brand produced in Netherlands from Sazerac	$10 m sales
	Spirits	US Sazerac buys Old Taylor whiskey brand from Fortune Brands
	Fruit juice	US Sunny Delight owner Beverage Holdings buys superfruit assets of Bossa Nova
	Dairy	Saputo from Canada to buy F&A Dairy activities in US	$140 m sales
	Beer	Heineken to merge Kralovsky brewery with Drinks Union subsidiary in Czech Republic
	Beer	Germany’s Oettinger to buy Braunschweig brewery from Carlsberg Deutschland
	Dairy	Belgium’s Inza to buy Yogho! Yogho! and Choco! Choco! European brand rights from Netherlands’ FrieslandCampina
	Packaging	Crown from US buys beverage can production facility from Interfood in Vietnam

THREE-LETTER BRANDS

Another question. How many beverage brands can you name that consist of just three letters ? Quite a few, I suspect. I wonder whether you could identify any that start with the same two letters.

You might be surprised therefore that there are at least five three letter beverage brands beginning with the two letters VI. I’ve noted:

Via – the new instant coffee brand being rolled out internationally by Starbucks

ViB – a new US lightly carbonated functional drink whose letters stand for “Vacation in a Bottle”

Vie – a range of vegetable shot drinks from Unilever

Vio – a recently launched natural mineral water brand from Coca-Cola in Germany

Vio – a new carbonated milk drink being trialled in New York, supposedly by Coca-Cola as well.

There is also La Vie, Nestlé’s leading natural mineral water brand in Vietnam. Vic nasal spray is liquid too, but not exactly drinkable.

Do let me know if there are more. But why VI ?

The most powerful reason must be that VI is the root of the Latin words for both ‘life’ and ‘way’. Hence vital, viable, vitamin, view and vista. Vie means life in French and can mean compete in English.

So you can go far with a little VI-sion.

WORLD’S BIGGEST EMPLOYERS

If you had to guess, who would you say are the world’s five biggest employers ? Would they include any food and drink companies ?

The Financial Times printed a top five on 23rd June, sourced from ONS and Labour Force Survey:

1. People’s Liberation Army, China 2.26 million
2. Wal-Mart, United States 2.10 million
3. National Health Service, United Kingdom 1.56 million
4. Indian railways 1.41 million
5. Indian army 1.13 million

So Wal-Mart is by far the world’s largest private sector employer, with food and drink making a major contribution.

By comparison, the world’s largest food and drink producer Nestlé has 283,000 employees.