Ferré & Consulting Blog (English Version)

Latin American bakery giant Grupo Bimbo’s has acquired Mexican confectionery producer Dulces Vero, for an undisclosed sum.

Bimbo, which originated in Mexico and is now one of Latin America’s largest food companies, has shown determination to increasing its domestic market share. It made $1.1bn in Mexico in the first quarter of 2010 – a rise of 3.2% on last year, and half the company’s total net sales.

The company has completed a number of acquisitions in South America over the past three years including companies from Brazil, Argentina and Colombia – helping it to become one of the top five food companies globally.

Dulces Vero reported a turnover of $87m in 2009. It exports it lollipops and gummy sweets to over 20 countries worldwide and will folded into Grupo Bimbo’s its snack division, Barcel. Bimbo hopes the purchase will boost sales in the US Hispanic market.

Companies Dulces Vero, Grupo Bimbo

Thermo Fisher Scientific has announced a new method for simple and accurate analysis of cadmium in chocolate. The Thermo Scientific iCE 3500 atomic absorption spectrometer allows simple analysis of this trace element, while Thermo Scientific SOLAAR software enables easy method development.

Samples were analyzed following a simple digestion procedure, and matrix matched standards were used to accurately determine cadmium concentration. The Graphite Furnace TeleVision (GFTV) capability of the iCE 3500 also aids method development as sample deposition and sample drying can be viewed in real-time inside the cuvette.

Experimental results revealed that cadmium was accurately detected in all analyzed chocolate samples at concentration levels well below recommended limits for cadmium in foodstuffs.

The method is detailed in an application note entitled “The Analysis of Cadmium in Chocolate by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry,” which is available to download at www.thermoscientific.com/App-Note-43034.

Cadmium is a heavy metal used in a number of applications and the main chocolate ingredients such as milk, cocoa and fats are potential sources of cadmium. Chocolate samples should be therefore be analysed accurately to ensure consumer safety.

The provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of cadmium is seven ?g/kg body weight. The recommendation however, is to limit cadmium intake as much as possible because it offers no nutritional benefit. Typical maximum levels of cadmium in foodstuffs are currently between 0.05 and 0.2 mg/kg wet weight.

Chocolate, Technology analysis, cadmium, Chocolate, Thermo Fisher Scientific

International bakery group Lantmännen Unibake has completed the takeover of UK’s leading supplier of sweet and savoury pastries and specialty breads, Bakehouse by acquiring the remaining shares in the company. To further consolidate its position in the UK market, Lantmännen Unibake is set to make a major investment in new UK production capacity.

In May 2009, Lantmännen Unibake became the majority shareholder in Bakehouse, UK’s leading supplier of sweet and savoury pastries and specialty breads. The acquisition continued Lantmännen Unibake’s massive investments in the UK market making it the company’s biggest market.

Today, Lantmännen Unibake announces that the company will purchase the remaining shares in Bakehouse.  This means that Bakehouse will be fully owned by Lantmännen Unibake, with the acquisition completed by July 2010.

“When we purchased the majority holding in Bakehouse last May, the vision was to expand the ownership to 100 percent as a natural next step. Our companies are a perfect match, and the potential looks immensely promising. Bakehouse is an absolute world class expert in in-store bakeries and tailored solutions for the retail and food service business. We now have the ideal set-up for providing our customers with the best service in the market meaning the world’s largest assortment combined with sales and marketing concepts”, comments Lantmännen Unibake CEO, Bent Pultz Larsen.

New UK bakery

After acquiring first Eurobuns in 2008 and now Bakehouse, a natural next step in Lantmännen Unibake’s ambitious growth strategy is to set up new production capacity in the UK.

“The UK is our biggest market, and the new bakery gives us a strong position with a complete production set-up. It will bring us even closer to our UK customers and put us in the best possible position to meet the growing demand we are experiencing in the UK,” says Bent Pultz Larsen.

When complete, the new bakery will house three state-of-the-art production lines. The exact location of the bakery is yet to be decided, but it is expected to be ready for operation by mid 2011.

Companies Bakehouse, investments, Lantmännen Unibake, UK

Lantmännen Unibake, a global bread and baked foods supplier, has continued its global expansion by acquiring a fast-food bakery from Hungarian milling and baking group Elso Pesti. Financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to boost Lantmännen Unibake’s presence in Central Europe, were not disclosed.

“We believe that building on existing knowledge is essential for our future growth,” said Bent Pultz Larsen, chief executive officer of Lantmännen Unibake. “Therefore, we are proud to announce the acquisition of a new bakery in Hungary, a very important step in our expansion in the Central European region. We want to follow our international customers into the Central and Eastern European market and with production in Russia, Poland and now Hungary we have the best possible setup for matching our customers’ needs and demands for the future.”

The addition of the Hungarian bakery marks Lantmännen Unibake’s fifth major investment in the past two years. Earlier, the company acquired bakeries in Finland, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Owned by Swedish farmers through the Lantmännen group, Lantmännen Unibake operates 86 bakery lines in 26 bakeries in Hungary, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, Belgium, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States. The company’s US site is in Lisle, Illinois.

The company’s brand portfolio consists of: Hatting, Schulstad, Schulstad Bake Off, Schulstad Royal Danish Pastry, Pastridor, Korvbrödsbagarn, Paaskebrod and Skoga.

Companies Hungarian bakery, Lantmännen Unibake

Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV is accepting submissions for its bi-annual Grupo Bimbo Pan-American Nutrition Award 2010. The award, which includes US$56,000 to be distributed among named winners, recognizes the best research papers of the year in the fields of human nutrition and food science and technology.

Grupo Bimbo said the award is presented to two winners — a professional and a young scientist — in each of the four zones the company serves: the United States, Mexico, Central America and South America.

To qualify as a professional, individuals must have carried out unique, valuable research projects alone or as part of a team with at least five peer-reviewed publications in the past three years and have supervised postgraduates. They also must have taught and participated in activities promoting science.

Young scientists must have concluded a master’s degree a maximum of two years before publication date of the invitation for the award and must actively participate in scientific and/or technical research projects. They also must have at least one publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

The professional award carries a cash prize of US$5,000 for each zone, while the young scientist award has a cash prize of US$2,000.

An independent scientific jury from each geographical zone, composed of researchers and experts in human nutrition, food science and technology, will rate the submitted projects on several criteria, including:

• The quality, content, and congruence of the proposal in relation to the disciplines set forth by this invitation,

• Scientific quality (i.e. adequate methodology, congruence between results, scientific questions studied and interpretation), originality and innovation in the studied area,

• The impact on and benefits to human nutrition of the corresponding region,

• The impact on and benefits to the industrialization processes of food products, according to the resources and needs of the corresponding region, and

• Relevance and satisfactory extent of the objectives set.

Award submissions should be registered by 15 Oct. at the award web site premiopanamericano.grupobimbo.com.

Companies Grupo Bimbo, Nutrition Award 2010, professional award

A group of Spanish investors hope to revolutionize the Senegal fresh bread market by setting up a bakery business in the African country.

Francisco Borrull, 36, from Alzira in Valencia, and his partners, Ramón García and Juan Iñigo aim to establish a network of 150 Baobab Foods outlets, after being attracted by a programme run by the Senegalese government and its youth employment agency to promote foreign investment in what are regarded as priority sectors, writes David Ing.

The trio plants to open a third of the shops (named after the country’s best known tree) in the capital Dakar, where around a quarter of the country’s 12 million population live, the next 50 in nearby cities and towns, and then spread out the rest of the west African country. It has been estimated the business will bring around 3,800 jobs to Senegal.

Borrull visited Senegal in October 2009 where he said he witnessed a demand for bakery goods not being satisfied, and even where bread was available it was often “lacking in quality”.

He added: “We found out about people not being able to eat bread every day, or sometimes spending up three hours in going to look for it.”

TV coverage

Interest in their project has already led the group to have a personal audience with the country’s prime minister and they have been feature on a Senegal prime time national TV news programme.

Since the French colonized the country in the late 19^th century, the Senegalese have long been accustomed to the traditional baguette loaves but production quality suffers from the use of too many old ovens and frequent electricity cuts which mean much of the bread that comes out of them is not fully baked. Transport and hygiene are also major issues.

Borrull comented: “It is not uncommon to see bread wrapped up in a piece of paper picked up from the floor, or distribution carried out from horse-drawn carts.”

Alongside the development of the bakery chain, the company has plans to buy up land and grow its own wheat in line with an agricultural development initiative introduced by the country’s president, Abdoulaye Wade, two years ago to help the country become self-sufficient in food production.

Baobab Foods hopes to help illegal immigrants who have travelled to Spain from Senegal to return to the country by offering one in three of the jobs they create to workers being repatriated from Spain. The plan has already been discussed with the Senegalese consul in Valencia, who is supporting the move as many migrants are struggling to find work due to the tough economic climate in Spain.

Bakery Baobab Foods, fresh bread, Senegal