MUST HAVE FASHION FROM RECYCLED RINGPULLS AND BOTTLES

If you were to start your own business, you might think that discarded ringpulls from soft drinks cans would be a hazardous raw material.

Yet a charity called Bottletop in Brazil is now exporting handbags made of ringpulls to the United Kingdom. Apparently it takes 1,000 ringpulls to make a bag and requires about a day’s work.

They retail for upwards of £30 and have been bought by celebrities such as Annie Lennox and Natalie Imbruglia. The ringpulls themselves are collected by the homeless who can earn £3 per kilogram.

If you’d like to know more, check The Sunday Times on 6th September or go to timesonline.co.uk/environment

By coincidence, Coca-Cola has been inspired by a similar idea and will be giving away bags made from recycled PET bottles as part of a limited edition UK promotion in October.

The blurb says they will be covered in pink and white phrases printed on a black background, folding up into a leopard skin pattern pouch.

Call me old fashioned, but … full details are available at presscentre.coca-cola.co.uk

THREE WATER STORIES THAT CAUGHT MY EYE

In one of Zenith’s regular client newsletters last week, I was struck by three consecutive items on water – in the UK, US and Fiji.

The UK Government is supporting a massive new £100 million campaign to promote more responsible consumption of alcohol. One of the posters features a bottle of water. Last year, a Government Minister declared bottled water bordered on being morally unacceptable. Now another Government Minister is endorsing it as part of a public health message.

The second concluded with a statement by the US based International Bottled Water Association that: “We test per gallon 68 times more than municipal systems.” Bottled water companies in many countries have had to face jibes that tap water is regulated more stringently and tested more rigorously than bottled water. This figure certainly answers one of the concerns.

The third reported various criticisms of Fiji Water, including its export to the other side of the world while Fijians suffer poor water supplies. In a wide ranging response by blog, the company said its 350 employees had few other job prospects and were among the highest paid in the country. The environmental debate will always be difficult for Fiji to answer, but I would have to defend a country’s right to improve its economy through free and fair trade.

NESTLE JAPAN KITKAT WITH VEGETABLE JUICE

Yes, the summer is almost over, but the silly season for news that may be stranger than fiction appears to know no limits.

I am sure Nestlé’s KitKat chocolate wafer bar range could easily extend to biscuits, cakes, ice creams and chews – even cereals, milk shakes, desserts and spreads. But I would never have anticipated one containing vegetable juice.

Yet a new apple-carrot flavoured wafer bar coated in white chocolate was launched on 24th August. I’ll look forward to hearing from anyone who has tried it. That is, anyone out there who’s brave enough.

34 MORE ACQUISITIONS IN JULY/AUGUST

The pace of food and drink company acquisitions continued unabated over the summer months.

Out of 34 more recorded in July and August, 10 were in soft drinks, 5 in beer, 5 in wine and spirits, 3 in ingredients and 3 in packaging.

23 countries were involved, led by the United States and United Kingdom, with other important contributions from France, Russia, China and Japan.

16 of the transactions were across borders, 18 within single countries. Anheuser-Busch InBev and Rio Tinto both made two divestments.

The biggest deal was PepsiCo’s $7.8 billion agreement to buy out its two leading bottlers. Rio Tinto’s sales added up to $3.2 billion.

Jul 09	Packaging	US Ball Corporation to buy four beverage can plants from Anheuser-Busch InBev	$577m
	Soft drinks	US Sunny Delight owner Beverage Holdings buys Bossa Nova from JW Childs private equity firm and Coca-Cola
	Dairy	China’s COFCO and Hopu private equity fund to buy 20% of Mengniu	$790m
	Packaging	Bemis of US to acquire Food Americas operations of Alcan Packaging from Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto	$1.2 bn
	Beer	Affinity Equity Partners to buy 50% of South Korea’s Oriental Brewery from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts private equity firm of US	$400 m
	Dairy	Nutritek from Russia buys New Zealand Dairies
	Equipment	Tetra Pak from Sweden acquires mixer assets from Scanima of Denmark
	Juice	New Zealand’s Frucor to buy Simply Squeezed
	Food	UK Key Capital Partners leads management buy out of TSC Foods	$24 m
	Food	UK Heather Mills buys Redwood Wholefood
	Wine	UK Global Vintners buys Ehrmanns importer
	Equipment	US SigmaBleyzer private equity firm buys Jus-Made drink mix maker
	Spirits	Illva Saronno from Italy buys Tia Maria liqueur brand from Pernod Ricard of France	$125m
	Soft drinks	Japan’s Suntory to buy soft drinks division of Nichirei	Y5.5bn Sales
	Beer	China’s Tsingtao Brewery to buy Baotuquan from Tsingtao Group	CNY 9m
	Hot drinks	Arab Investments buys UK based Coffee Republic coffee shop chain
	Bottled water	Austria’s Vöslauer merges with brewer Ottakringer
Aug 09	Ingredients	US Nutra to buy Nutritional Specialties assets from Baywood	$8m
	Vodka	Central European Distribution Corporation from Poland buys additional 6% of Russian Alcohol Group	$30m
	Fruit	Dole from US to sell certain operations in Latin America	$68m
	Ingredients	Natraceutical from Spain to merge with Naturex of France	€200m sales
	Soft drinks	US PepsiCo to buy remaining shares in Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas	$7.8bn
	Soft drinks	Coca-Cola from US buys back plant in Philippines	$100m
	Wine	Boisset Family Estates from France buys Raymond Vineyard & Cellar in United States
	Beer	Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana to buy Caribbean breweries from Royal Unibrew of Denmark	$31m
	Soft drinks	Japan’s Sapporo to buy 22% stake in Pokka from Advantage investment fund	$105m
	Soft drinks	PepsiCo from US to buy Amacoco in Brazil
	Beer	Efes from Turkey to buy remaining 7% stake in Krasny Vostok of Russia from Tradex	$30m
	Soft drinks	US Full Motion buys Mojito
	Wine	France’s LVMH buys 50% stake in Chateau Cheval Blanc and La Tour du Pin
	Packaging	Amcor of Australia to buy Alcan packaging assets from Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto	2.0bn
	Soft drinks	US AMI Brands buys Embodi
	Ingredients	UK Brenntag buys packed glucose syrup business from Cargill
	Beer	C&C from Ireland buys Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland businesses from Anheuser-Busch InBev of Belgium	£180m

SUGAR AND SOFT DRINKS

Some stark new guidelines have been issued by the American Heart Association in response to justified concerns about the advance of obesity.

According to Reuters, it found that the main sources of added sugar in the US diet were:

Regular soft drinks	33%
Sugar and candy	16%
Cakes, cookies and pies	13%
Fruit drinks	10%
Dairy desserts	9%

It advised women not to consume more than 25 grams (100 calories) of added sugar per day and men to keep the amount below 37.5 grams (150 calories).

Since a can of Coke reportedly contains 140 calories from 39 grams and a can of Pepsi 150 calories from 41 grams, this not only puts pressure on consumers to cut back, it also implies soft drinks companies should reduce their standard serving sizes.

The message echoes parallel moves in the United Kingdom, where the Government-backed Food Standards Agency proposed smaller portion packs in July.

To be fair, soft drinks producers have constantly adapted their pack sizes according to changing demands and have invested heavily in promoting lighter or zero calorie versions.

A third insight of the past few days is the revelation by PepsiCo that all its UK Pepsi brand advertising for the past five years has been devoted to Pepsi Max and Diet Pepsi, with nothing at all spent on marketing regular Pepsi.

Salman Amin, the PepsiCo UK & Ireland President, was quoted in The Observer newspaper as stating: “The obesity challenge was years in the making and it will take years to change that. But you have to start somewhere and one of the places you can start is by saying : ‘You know what ? I’m going to stop promoting my full sugar products.’”

That’s quite a statement. All the more so, since he’s just been appointed as PepsiCo Inc Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing.