Industry News

July 23, 2012 The Age Goodman Fielder says its full-year earnings are likely to be at the lower end of its forecast. Goodman said its normalised earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) and significant items was expected to be at the lower end of its $230 million to $245 million range. Its accounts for its 2012 financial year would also take a hit of about $200 million in relation to the valuation of some of its businesses. ‘‘While trading conditions and external markets remain very challenging, Goodman Fielder today confirms that it expects normalised EBIT (pre significant items) to be within this range at the lower end,’’ Goodman said in a statement. ‘‘Increased competitive pressure, including price reductions for supermarket private label bread and the resulting pricing pressure on proprietary branded bread, together with higher labour and logistics costs continue to impact earnings in the Australia/New Zealand Baking division.’’ The…

July 23, 2012 The Age WHAT a difference a year (and some rain) makes. SunRice chairman Gerry Lawson, who along with his board recommended the failed $600 million takeover offer for the rice marketer by the Spanish food giant Ebro last year, has expressed relief on the bid being narrowly defeated by a vote of shareholders. ”The drought and the external bid made for SunRice last year highlighted some shortcomings in our company’s structure,” explained Lawson in the group’s annual report that was dispatched on Friday. The report celebrated SunRice cracking the $1 billion revenue mark for the first time and posting a 159 per cent jump in net profit. Lawson added that the former rice-growing co-operative would ”be conducting a review of our governance and capital structure in the coming months to consider the objectives we set in our conversion to a company in 2005, and whether SunRice is…

Sky News news.com.au July 23, 2012 NEW York City opens its first water-only café, selling only tap water for a large price, $US1 for a cup. The café’s co-owner Adam Ruhf told Reuters that their water is cleaner and healthier than regular tap water, with no trace of any chemical or mineral compounds. “The human body is composed of 60 to 70 per cent water. It’s extremely important for people to drink water every day and we feel that drinking the most pure water gives you the greatest benefits to your health,” he told Reuters Television. This is shown by a very complicated purifying system situated behind the bar. The purifying system strips the cities tap water down to its molecular level – hence the Cafe’s name Molecule, Sky News reports. “It’s a seven stage filtration process going through KDF (Kinetic Degradation Fluxion), magnetic and catalytic, active-carbon-five-micron reverse osmosis, UV…

Jul 19, 2012 CSNews ROCKVILLE, Md. — Convenience stores account for 12 percent of all retail prepared food and ready-to-eat food sales, according to Prepared Foods and Ready-to-Eat Food at Retail, a new report from Packaged Facts. Despite selling about one-eighth of all prepared and ready-to-eat food at retail, c-stores trail Walmart, which accounts for 15 percent of sales, and supermarkets, which hold a dominant share at 60 percent of sales. According to Packaged Facts, c-stores are missing out on a golden opportunity. “Most convenience store foodservice platforms…still operate under the assumption that the people buying them do not want to put health concerns first,” the report stated. “…[T]his ignores the fact that millions of consumers do want to eat healthier fare — and many might appreciate a tasty but health option just at the point when impulse and efficiency directs them to a convenience store.” Overall, prepared food and…

Sarah Michael July 20, 2012 news.com.au PRICES of bread and chicken are set to go up in Australia as the US faces its worst drought in more than 50 years. Corn and soyabean prices surged to record highs overnight, with large agricultural regions of US declared “a disaster zone” after weeks of scorching temperatures and low rainfall. The rise in wheat prices – which have surged more than 50 per cent in five weeks – is the biggest worry for Australians, Profarmer senior commodities analyst Malcolm Bartholomaeus said. “Anything that uses flour will go up,” Mr Bartholomaeus said. “And the price of chicken is likely to go up because feed grain has gone up and [producers] are likely to pass those costs on.” The drought also spells bad news for any products made with corn or soyabeans, Mr Bartholomaeus said. He added that the price rises will hit products in…

Jessica Irvine July 20, 2012 The Age You are what you eat, they say. If so, Australians are shaped rather like a takeaway container filled with booze and meat, with nary a vegetable in sight. Two reports released this week highlight the dire state of the nation’s nutrition. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s report, Australia’s Food and Nutrition 2012, found 91 per cent of adults do not eat enough vegetables and only half eat enough fruit. One in five drinks alcohol at risky levels. Households spent an average of $237 a week on food and beverages in 2009-10. By far the biggest component of spending was on food prepared outside the home, at restaurants and takeaways, where the average outlay was $63 a week. In second place was spending on alcoholic drinks, $32 a week, followed by meat, fish and seafood, $30 a week. Australians spent just a…