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March 2, 2005
Glanbia's N.M. dairy facility to open in October...Parmalat allowed to charge Citigroup with fraud...Carvel returns to Los Angeles...Record rains sink Calif. dairy farms...Wimm-Bill-Dann completes upgrades at Ukrainian facility...Marketing Mix... Safeway, Publix report fourth quarter and 2004 financials...Roundy's to sell two distribution centers...Odds-and-Ends...Stock Market Ticker...More news at www.idfa.org.
DAIRY BUSINESS BRIEFS
Kilkenny, Ireland-based international dairy company Glanbia PLC announced that its new $190 million production facility in New Mexico, a joint venture between Glanbia's Southwest Cheese Company LLC, Dairy Farmers of America Inc. and Select Milk Producers Inc., is expected to begin production as planned in October. The facility will produce more than 110,000 tons of cheese and 7,500 tons of whey proteins annually.
In other Glanbia news, the company reported that its 2004 profit (before tax and exceptions) was $102.5 million, compared to $101.7 million in 2003. Sales for continuing operations increased to roughly $2.4 billion vs. 2003's $2.2 billion, while total sales declined 10% as a result of the planned restructuring of the Group's UK operations and poor performance in its pork business. Glanbia noted its plans to focus on dairy processing investments in New Mexico and Nigeria, and reported strong growth in its U.S. food ingredients venture. Glanbia additionally announced that Chairman Tom Corcoran will retire in June. (Company report, AFX News)
Italian dairy Parmalat Finanziaria SpA will be allowed to pursue its $10 billion fraud lawsuit against New York-based Citigroup Inc. following Monday's ruling by a Superior Court judge in Bergen County, N.J. Parmalat's claims were filed in New Jersey, as both companies do business in the state. Citigroup has alleged, in turn, that Parmalat's fraudulent activities have caused the bank to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. (Daily Deal/The Deal)
After a nearly 30-year hiatus, Carvel Ice Cream stores will return to the Los Angeles region with 17 locations slated to open this year. Three stores opened in Southern California last year. Atlanta-based Carvel currently operates 500 stores in 37 states. In other news, Carvel shops are rolling out a new product, Cake Mix Carvelanche, which combines soft-serve ice cream with a variety of cake flavors. (The Daily News of Los Angeles, The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News-Stuart, Fla.)
Dairy producers in Southern California are reporting that recent record rainfall—the third worst rain year on record—has resulted in more than $38 million in damages from lost milk production, dead and sickened dairy cattle and damaged infrastructure. During a normal rainy season, each farm in the region usually loses about two cows a month per farm to exhaustion and disease. So far this year each of the 250 dairies has been losing about a cow a day. The economic hit to the region is the worst since 1997, when dairy farmers lost about $60 million and the area was declared a federal disaster area. (Associated Press)
Russian dairy company Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods has completed the latest stage of its $2.7 million modernization efforts at Kiev City Dairy Plant No. 3, one of its largest Ukrainian milk processing plants. The facility has a new dietetic products line and compressor station, which will increase quality, shelf-life and production volumes of milk, kefir, ryazhenka, drinkable yogurts and cream. (Datamonitor NewsWire)
MARKETING MIX
In celebration of its 75th anniversary, Waukesha, Wis.-based Golden Guernsey Dairy will use on-pack coupons on its milk gallon packaging to cross-promote its full line of GG Golden Guernsey Dairy brand products. The company says it believes this is the first time milk gallons in the Golden Guernsey marketing area have carried on-pack coupons for other dairy products. Golden Guernsey is a division of Baraboo, Wis.-based , which has more than $1 billion in annual sales. (Company report)
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet company Yahoo! is teaming with Baskin-Robbins to offer consumers a free scoop of ice cream. Consumers who visit the Yahoo! home page (www.yahoo.com) today, March 2, can download a coupon for a free scoop of their favorite ice cream flavor at participating Baskin-Robbins stores. The coupons—good only for today—are customized with the consumer's name. Additionally, the site features driving directions that can be sent to a mobile phone and a listing of all Baskin-Robbins locations in the user-specified geographic area. (Company report)
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. will host its Winter Festival at its Factory Tour processing facility in Waterbury, Vt., this weekend. Visitors will be able to sample different ice creams including special Winter Festival flavors Vermont Snowball and Minter Wonderland as well as new 2005 flavors. (Company report)
Lobster ice cream from Bar Harbor, Maine-based Ben and Bill's Chocolate Emporium was featured on the "Cream of the Crop" episode of Roker on the Road Tuesday night on The Food Network. The ice cream—grilled lobster meat in a vanilla ice cream that is reported to taste like a frozen Newburg or bisque—was created more than a decade ago as a signature food in the company's 70-flavor ice cream line. The lobster flavor has previously enjoyed coverage ranging from national newspapers to Paul Harvey's radio show. Also featured on Roker on the Road was a Vermont man who makes water buffalo cheese and yogurt. (Bangor Daily News-Maine)
CUSTOMER CLIPS
Safeway Inc. posted a profit for fourth quarter 2004, with earnings of $202.7 million ($0.45 per share) compared with a strike-driven net loss of $695.9 million (-$1.57 per share) in fourth quarter 2003. Sales for the quarter were $11.4 billion, a slight increase from $11 billion a year earlier. For 2004, the company earned $560.2 million ($1.25 per share) compared to a loss of $169.8 million ($0.38 a share) in 2003. Sales for the year were $35.82 billion, compared to $35.73 billion a year ago. (Associated Press)
Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix posted a 10.3 percent sales increase for the fourth quarter of 2004, with sales of $4.8 billion vs. last year's fourth quarter sales of $4.3 billion. Net earnings for the fourth quarter increased 31 percent to $232.9 million ($1.34 per share), compared to $177.7 million ($0.99 per share) in fourth quarter 2003. Sales reached $18.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Dec. 25, 2004, a 10.7 percent increase from 2003's $16.8 billion. Net earnings for 2004 were $819.4 million ($4.64 per share), compared to $660.9 million ($3.59 per share) for 2003. (Company report)
Milwaukee-based supermarket chain Roundy's Inc will sell two distribution centers in Lima, Ohio, and Westville, Ind., to Minneapolis-based Nash Finch Co. for $225 million. The sale by Roundy's is part of its plan to focus exclusively on its retail operation, including plans for seven new stores in the Milwaukee area. Roundy's will continue to operate three distribution centers in Wisconsin, supplying grocery items to 200-plus stores, including 126 owned by the company under the Pick 'n Save, Copps and Rainbow Foods banners. The distribution centers to be purchased by Nash Finch supply products to more than 500 retailers and have annual sales of about $1 billion. The deal, which also includes two retail stores in Ohio, is expected to close by the end of April. (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
IDFA NEWS
Don't Miss These Training Opportunities!
Be sure to review IDFA's selection of upcoming programs, designed to suit dairy professionals' wide-ranging educational needs! In the next two months, IDFA will present: SmartMarketing 2005 (March 15-17); the Advanced Dairy & Juice HACCP Workshop (March 22-24); Dairy 101: Milk Procurement Workshop (April 5-6); and the Plant Operations Conference (April 26-27). Complete details on all of these valuable programs are available by clicking here!
ODDS-AND-ENDS
Roughly 700 cheese contestants will vie for honors at the 2005 United States Championship Cheese Contest to take place in Milwaukee, Wis., March 14 to 16. The contest is hosted biennially by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. Judging for the contest will be held in conjunction with the Wisconsin Restaurant Expo to give top cheeses greater visibility among chefs. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WCMA report)...Montville, N.J.-based mozzarella cheese processor Lucille Farms Inc. has named Don Desjarlais as executive vice president and chief financial officer. He most recently served as CFO of Wisconsin's Alto Dairy Cooperative. (Company report)...In Passing: E.C. Adams, owner of Adams Dairy and Velvet Freeze Ice Cream Co., died on Feb. 24. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch).
STOCK MARKET TICKER
As of 3/01/05, market close.
| Company/Symbol |
|
Last Trade |
|
Change over
Previous Close |
|
Change over
Last Week's D-brief |
Dean Foods/DF
Dreyer's/DRYR
General Mills/GIS
Groupe Danone/DA
Hershey Foods/HSY
Ingles Markets/IMKTE
Kraft Foods/KFT
Kroger/KR
Ruddick Corp./RDK
Safeway/SWY
Saputo/SAP.TO
Supervalu/SVU
Unilever PLC/UL
Weis Markets/WMK
Wimm Bill Dann/WBD
Winn-Dixie/WIN
|
|
34.65
80.67
52.83
20.18
63.82
13.05
33.49
18.05
23.65
18.71
37.60
32.40
39.21
37.52
16.76
00.00
|
|
+0.10
+0.00
+0.46
+0.28
+0.82
+0.00
+0.04
+0.06
+0.05
+0.31
+0.35
+0.63
+0.40
+0.34
-0.09
N/A
|
|
+0.80
+0.11
+2.08
+0.83
+1.96
+0.00
+0.46
+0.40
+0.69
+0.61
+0.50
+1.02
+0.82
+0.77
+0.36
-1.47
|
Source: Yahoo! Finance
|
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D-brief is written by Dairy Field magazine, a Stagnito Communications Inc. publication, www.dairyfield.com. It is provided for the benefit of the industry by the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), www.idfa.org.
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