Baking & Snack - June 2009 - 20

NEWS

General Mills renewing, renovating
growth strategies
Investing in key growth demographics,
communicating via new media, responding to health opportunities and relating to
retail partners are essential parts of
General Mills, Inc.'s efforts to spark
business performance, according to the
Minneapolis, MN-based company.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs
Consumer Products Conference in May in
New York, NY, Ken Powell, president and
c.e.o. at General Mills, said despite a
challenging environment the company
continues to do well and remains committed to its growth model, including
low single-digit sales growth. With that
in mind, he said the company is making
headway on its plans to "renew and renovate" many of its approaches in its US
retail business to drive consistent strong
performance across all categories.
One approach includes a "very high

focus on multicultural consumers,"
Mr. Powell said. "African-American and
Hispanic moms are 40% of the mothers
that we are talking to now," he said. "We
are spending significantly more money
against those consumers, and that demographic is outpacing our average
growth right now."
Mr. Powell also noted General Mills'
strategy of becoming a leader in digital
marketing is playing out well. "We've
made major investments in our own
direct-to-consumer lists," he said. "We
have many millions of people that we
are communicating with now as well as
things like bettycrocker.com and pillsbury.
com. This whole avenue of using the
Internet and direct-to-consumer lists to
reach consumers is a very high returning
marketing activity for us and we are on
the leading edge of that right now."

Reiser constructs
new customer center

Reiser is constructing a new state-of-theart Customer Center at its Canton, MA,
headquarters. The 6,600-sq-ft expansion
to the existing headquarters is scheduled
to open in September.
The center will feature a customizable processing room to run individual machines or
fully automated lines, as well as a test kitchen
for preparing finished product. It also includes conference rooms for meetings and
training, as well as work stations for visitors.
"Reiser has a long history of providing the
highest levels of customer support," said John
McIsaac, vice-president, strategic business
development. "The Center will help processors develop the best solution for their
particular application."

NEWS IN BRIEF
The Institute of Food Technologists named Sen. Kent
Conrad and Congressman Bob
Goodlatte as the recipients of
its annual Congressional Support for Science Award. Sen. Conrad, North Dakota, helped write the 2002
and 2008 Farm Bills and is one of the most
senior members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
Rep. Goodlatte, Virginia, is on the House
Agriculture Committee and is a ranking
minority member of the subcommittee of
conservation, credit, energy and research.

Fritsch opened its new
Fritsch Technology Center in
Kitzingen, Germany. The 32,292-sq-ft
center houses a fully equipped bakery to
give Fritsch customers firsthand
experience on its machines and systems.
They can develop and test new products,

BAKING & SNACK / June 2009

review product range strategies or
optimize the manufacturing processes.

The Institute of Food Technologists selected Kyungsoo
Woo, Ph.D., principal scientist at
MGP Ingredients, Inc., as the winner of the
2009 Industrial Scientist Award.

Unilever will reduce the salt
content in most of its 22,000
products by 2010. The company's
goal is to help people reach the daily recommended dietary intake of 6 g of salt per
person per day.

Organizacion Barcel has begun using degradable metallic
polypropylene packaging that
disintegrates within three to five years after
a product's shelf life. The Mexico-based
subsidiary of Grupo Bimbo S.A.B. de C.V.

said it will implement the measure on a
global level and expects to fully incorporate degradable metallic packaging by the
first quarter of 2011.

Naturally Sweet Baking Co.
launched a new online store at
www.fruitcereal.com. The company, which develops and manufactures
products that incorporate natural whole
fruit, will sell its fruit cereal directly to
consumers through the online store. The
cereal is non-perishable and sold in
single-serving, stay-fresh packages.

AGRI-associates celebrated
40 years. In 1969, the company started
with one office in Kansas City and today
has more than 20 offices in the US and
International areas. It has become a leader
in the agribusiness and food-related
recruiting industry.

http://www.bettycrocker.com http://www.fruitcereal.com

Baking & Snack - June 2009

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