Ferré & Consulting Blog (English Version)

Barry Callebaut has announced the sale of its European consumer business Stollwerck to the Belgian Baronie Group. The share deal comprises the entire Stollwerck Group including five factories in Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. The transaction also includes a long term supply agreement between Baronie Group and Barry Callebaut for the supply of approximately 25,000 tonnes of liquid chocolate annually as well as the additional supply of cocoa beans and semi finished products.

The two contracting parties agreed not to disclose any financial details of the transaction, which is subject to antitrust assessment. Closing is expected for fall 2011.

Stollwerck, bought by Barry Callebaut in 2002, is a producer of chocolate confectionery products offering an extensive portfolio to most of the important retailers in Europe. Sales revenue of Stollwerck is approximately EUR 500 million and volumes sold are more than 100,000 tonnes. Stollwerck’s volumes consist of private label business, branded chocolate products and co manufacturing for third parties.

Source: Confectionery Production

Companies Baronie, Barry Callebaut, Stollwerck

Leading pod-to-pallet chocolate supplier, Barry Callebaut, is targeting manufacturers in the Americas with a stevia-based dark chocolate for use in multiple applications, including moulding, enrobing and inclusions.

The company said it has replaced sugar in the chocolate with an all-natural sweetener solution consisting of dietary fibres, the polyol erythritol and stevia extract, and added that the formulation has been customised to suit the taste preferences of region Americas.

A spokesperson for Barry Callebaut told ConfectioneryNews.com that the main formulation challenge was finding the right ingredient blends to ensure equivalence in stability, texture and taste:

“We use the fibres and erythritol in a combination that optimizes the sweetness profile of stevia. Only adding stevia extract to chocolate would not work properly.”

Using this combination, it is possible to have a sugar reduction up to 90 per cent in the final product, he added.

Stevia, a South American plant in the sunflower family, has attracted massive interest in the last two years following FDA GRAS (generally recognised as safe) for high purity Reb A as a sweetener in the US in late 2008.

Last October saw Barry Callebaut announce the development of a stevia-based chocolate for Belgian confectioner Cavalier for a tablet product, saying the no sugar-added chocolate was based on a sweetener solution (1/1 replacement of sugar) and the Reb A extract from the stevia plant (Stevia Rebaudiana Bertoni).

Swiss confectionery maker, Villars, has released a stevia-based chocolate tablet product and Japanese companies have been manufacturing chocolate products containing the sweetener for many years.

Barry Callebaut said that it intends to target European manufacturers with a stevia-based chocolate ingredient once the regulation allows it.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a positive safety opinion on all steviol glycosides extracts with a high purity, and approval is expected from the European Commission towards the end of 2011.

Source: Confectionery News

Chocolate Barry Callebaut, Chocolate, stevia

Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate products, announces the launch of the Terra Cacao range: an exciting new innovation in superior tasting chocolate. Based on revolutionary new cocoa cultivation and fermentation methods developed by Barry Callebaut in collaboration with local growers, the Terra Cacao range represents a giant leap forward in terms of both quality and sustainability. Thanks mostly to improvements in the fermentation of the raw cocoa beans, the cocoa used to make Terra Cacao has virtually zero defects or off flavors, resulting in a 100% natural chocolate with an unprecedented harmony of pure tastes and rich aromas.

The Terra Cacao range covers several milk and dark chocolate references varying from 33.5% to 70.5% cocoa mass. The range, shaped as callets, is available for industrial customers worldwide and packed in 10kg bags.

Enhanced Fermentation

The innovation in Terra Cacao is applied after the harvest, during the critical initial fermentation of the cocoa beans at the plantations. Years of painstaking research into the intricacies of this complex process have yielded important insights into how flavor precursors are developed during fermentation. Barry Callebaut has developed a revolutionary technique to naturally enhance this process and promote the growth of the right ferment cultures to awaken even the most delicate and refined flavor precursors in the cocoa beans.

Superior Selection

Terra Cacao is very much a product of Barry Callebaut’s long-standing commitment to fostering sustainability in the cocoa industry through forging close ties with local farming organizations. The process begins with the careful selection of cocoa varieties and growing conditions to ensure the best possible stock. Barry Callebaut seeks out the most favorable altitudes and flavor-enhancing terroirs in equatorial regions where the soil is fertile and farmers tend the trees with patience and respect. Only the best fruits are picked by hand at precisely the right moment, ensuring a maximum of latent flavors and aromas in the bean.

Genuine Craftsmanship

Because the new, advanced fermentation method and sun-drying process produce cocoa beans with virtually zero defects or off-flavors, Barry Callebaut’s master craftsmen can go to work with the very finest ingredients to produce potentially the finest chocolate the world has ever seen or tasted. Mild roasting and patient conching produce a truly exquisite chocolate whose texture, aroma, taste and flavors are blended to perfection.

Nicholas Camu, Fermentation Innovation Manager, Barry Callebaut: “We are extremely proud of the achievement Terra Cacao represents. Years of research, experimentation, trial and error have gone into perfecting the fermentation process to generate vastly superior quality cocoa beans in a 100% natural way. Most importantly, Terra Cacao is helping to build a more sustainable future for the cocoa industry. By improving over all quality, local farmers are able to earn better incomes and thus a better livelihood for themselves and their communities.”

Chocolate, Companies Barry Callebaut, cocoa beans, Terra Cacao

Callebaut has launched its new Fairtrade range of chocolate products.

Beginning in January 2011, four of Callebaut’s classic recipes – 811 (dark), 823 (milk), W2 (white) and 70-30-38 (dark) – will be available in conventional formulations, as well as Fairtrade certified formulations. The new range of chocolates will offer customers the opportunity to develop new artisanal products with Fairtrade certified chocolate.

“As the global leader in cocoa and chocolate, a focus on sustainability is an imperative for our company, not an option,” said Juergen Steinemann, CEO of Barry Callebaut.  “For a long time now we are actively engaged in origin countries by working together with farmers and cooperatives directly and at the same time we have been involved in various initiatives and projects, all contributing to a more sustainable cocoa supply chain. Our association with Fairtrade, for example, goes back many years and we are proud to be a Fairtrade preferred supplier of certified chocolate.”

Today, more than five million people in 60 developing countries participate in the international Fairtrade system. This includes cocoa, sugar and natural vanilla producers, who produce key ingredients in chocolate. Fairtrade strives for improved terms of trade and fair prices for farmers and workers in the global south that help them combat poverty, strengthen their position in the agricultural sector and take more control over their lives.

In order to receive Fairtrade certification, farmers must comply with the economic, environmental and social standards defined by Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO), a non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization made up of 24 member organizations worldwide. FLO sets fair-trade standards, supports producers in developing countries and determines the strategic direction of Fairtrade.

As part of its Fairtrade marketing program, Callebaut will provide customers with promotional POS materials, including posters, doorstickers and brochures, so they can communicate their commitment to work with Fairtrade certified chocolate. The materials will be available on the Callebaut website in January, when the new line of chocolates become available.

Callebaut Fairtrade products will be sold through Callebaut’s traditional Gourmet sales channels.

Chocolate, Companies Barry Callebaut, Chocolate, Fairtrade

Barry Callebaut is the first chocolate maker to developed a no sugar added chocolate with an extract from the Stevia plant on an industrial scale. Sugar has been replaced completely by a sweetener solution being high in fibre, with up to 65% less calories than sugar and that does not cause a laxative effect.

The chocolate will be retailed by Belgian chocolate maker Cavalier. Felix Verdegem, owner of Cavalier Chocolate, says, “As a family company dedicated to producing no sugars added chocolate since 1996, Cavalier is extremely excited about this latest innovation. Chocolate with Stevia is based on a sweetener solution limiting the overconsumption of sugars, while still offering the same unaltered experience of purity and refinement, as well as all healthy ingredients naturally found in cocoa.”

In terms of justifiable claims, chocolate with Stevia extract may be labeled as sugar reduced (90%), light sugar, containing maximum 5% sugars and rich in fiber (of which 20% cocoa-derived fibre). For the US market, the product can be labeled as No Sugar Added Dark Chocolate or simply Dark Chocolate.

Source: Confectionery Production

Chocolate Barry Callebaut, Cavalier, Stevia plant, sweeteners

US food giant Kraft Foods has signed a new deal with cocoa supplier and manufacturer Barry Callebaut.

It is a long-term agreement which will see the company supplying Kraft with cocoa products and other chocolate ingredients.

Some of the Cadbury liquid chocolate deliveries will also be part of the deal.

This agreement will more than double Barry Callebaut’s existing business with the food giant.

Due to the increased business, the company has said it plans to invest around $65 million (£42 million) over the next two years to boost its production capacity.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by Kraft when it announced an agreement had been reached.

After the announcement, shares in Barry Callebaut surged.

A spokesperson for the company told Market Watch: “It’s a significant deal and will put Kraft among our largest customers.”

This week, the former marketing director at Cadbury, who quit after not agreeing new terms with Kraft following the takeover of the brand earlier this year, Phil Rumbol, announced he would be starting up a new marketing agency.

Companies Barry Callebaut, Kraft

Barry Callebaut  inaugurated a new chocolate factory located in Extrema, Minas Gerais, near São Paulo, Brazil – the company’s first chocolate factory in South America.

Juergen Steinemann, CEO of Barry Callebaut, says, “Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world with a population of more than 190 million, and the country has returned much faster to its earlier growth dynamic than most other economies after the recent economic turmoil. Against this background and based on growth forecasts for the Latin American chocolate market of more than three percent in volume terms [Source: Euro monitor International] annually over the next three years, we see a tremendous market potential – not only in Brazil but in the entire region. 75% of the Brazilian GDP is generated within a radius of 500 kilometers from Extrema.”

The new chocolate factory in Extrema has an annual production capacity of around 20,000 tones, which can be doubled based on the same infrastructure. The total investment amounted to approximately £10 million (€11 million). At the start of chocolate production, Barry Callebaut offers 70 new jobs – going up significantly with new lines to be implemented in the future depending on market development.

Capacity utilisation at the plant is expected to rise rapidly. 80% of the factory’s production will be delivered to the main target customer segment, namely the rapidly growing food service market which includes restaurants, fast food restaurants, bakeries, pastries, in-store bakeries, caterers, hotels, chocolatiers, hospital and school canteens. For the distribution of food service products manufactured in Extrema, Barry Callebaut signed an exclusive distribution agreement with leading agribusiness company Bunge in 2009.

Companies Barry Callebaut, factory, South America

Barry Callebaut expects cocoa prices to gain further this year on supply concerns in top cocoa regions in West Africa and a recovery in global demand. The Swiss-based firm says prospects of weaker output from top grower Ivory Coast have shifted some of the company’s focus to Asia.

CEO Juergen Steinemann noted recently that Malaysia may drive some of the expansion once farmers improve the flavour of their beans through microbial fermentation to cater to a global market used to Ivory Coast beans. “Fundamentally, demand is higher than offers. Prices should go up,” Steinemann told reporters at Malaysia’s administrative capital of Putrajaya.

“Asia is the logical move away from Africa. Malaysia is the largest grinder in this region and we want to use our collaboration with the Malaysian Cocoa Board (MCB) to improve the quality of cocoa and improve the incomes of farmers.”

Under the three-year project, the MCB will ferment cocoa beans using microbe cultures developed by Barry Callebaut. MCB Director-General Azhar Ismail said Barry Callebaut will purchase the beans at a premium to local market prices.

Chocolate, Companies Asia, Barry Callebaut, cocoa