Milling & Baking News - February 5, 2013 - 18

Business 

Canada Bread closing plants in
New Brunswick and Alberta
TORONTO — Canada Bread will
close two baking plants in Grand Falls,
N.B., and Edmonton, Alta., during the
year. The company said the closings
will improve efficiencies by reducing
overhead and the rationalization of
lower margin products.
The Grand Falls plant manufactures a variety of cake products, sweet
goods and English muffins. The production of cake products and sweet
goods will be discontinued while English muffin production will be shifted
to another plant. Approximately 75

employees will be affected by the closing, which is scheduled
to take place on June 28.
The Edmonton bakery
produces raisin and garlic bread as well as a variety of food service products. Production will be
shifted to other Canada
Bread bakeries when the
plant closes on March 30.
Approximately 46 employees will be affected by the closing.
“We must adapt to food inflation and

ConAgra completes acquisition
of Ralcorp Holdings
OMAHA and ST. LOUIS — ConAgra
Foods, Inc. has completed its acquisition of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. following the approval of the transaction by
Ralcorp’s shareholders on Jan. 29 and
the receipt of all required regulatory
approvals. The combined company
will have 36,000 employees and annual sales of about $18 billion, including $4.5 billion in combined annual
private brand sales.
ConAgra Foods on Nov. 26, 2012,
agreed to acquire Ralcorp for $90 in
cash per share of Ralcorp common
stock. The transaction was valued at
about $6.8 billion, including the assumption of debt.
Gary Rodkin will continue as chief
executive officer of Omaha-based

ConAgra Foods. Kevin Hunt, former
c.e.o. of St. Louis-based Ralcorp, will
serve as a consultant for ConAgra

Foods for the next 12 months. Richard
Koulouris, vice-president and president of the Ralcorp Food Group, and
Charles Huber, vice-president and
president of the Ralcorp frozen bakery
business, will report directly to Mr.
Rodkin.
ConAgra Foods has established an
integration team. A steering committee

DuPont Pioneer to open
new soybean research facility
STROMSBURG, NEB. — DuPont Pioneer, the largest U.S. producer of hybrid seeds for agriculture, said it will
more than triple its localized testing at
a new soybean research facility based
in Stromsburg. The new site, which
is expected to open this spring, will
implement the company’s Accelerated
Yield Technology (A.Y.T.) process and
enhance the next generation of Pioneer
brand soybean products named the “T
Series” that includes 39 new products
to be introduced in 2013.
“Our Right Product, Right Acre
philosophy and A.Y.T. system, a
combination of molecular breeding
techniques, information management
18 / February 5, 2013 Milling & Baking News

and localized testing, will be a strong
foundation of this program and will
allow us to make better decisions to
benefit farmers’ operations more than
ever before,” said Steve Schnebly,
senior research manager for DuPont
Pioneer.
Mr. Schnebly has focused on the
soybean area since 1995 and will continue to oversee the Nebraska program. In addition to the Stromsburg
site, DuPont Pioneer operates soybean
research facilities in Algona and Dallas Center, Iowa; Lawrence, Kas.; Redwood Falls, Minn.; and Volga, S.D.
“A site in Nebraska will increase our
opportunities to have closer interactions

rising costs by further lowering our
cost structure and improving operating
efficiencies,” said Richard Lan, president and chief executive officer. “We
deeply regret the impact this decision
has on our people and we
will do everything we can
to ease their transition to
new employment.”
Closing costs to be incurred in 2013, including
severance,
decommissioning and asset writedowns, are expected to
amount to approximately
C$6.3 million before tax,
C$4.3 million of which is cash expenses, the company said. MBN
of senior leaders from ConAgra Foods
and Ralcorp will lead the team.
ConAgra Foods plans to give preliminary estimates of the transaction’s
benefits on earnings per share in the
fiscal years 2013 and 2014 during the
Consumer Analyst Group of New
York (CAGNY) event Feb. 19 in Boca
Raton, Fla.
“We are excited to have closed the
transaction and welcome our talented
new team members from Ralcorp to
the ConAgra Foods family,” Mr. Rodkin said. “We are now in a position to
begin the most substantial aspects of
integration planning and look forward
to learning from and working with our
new colleagues. This important acquisition reinforces and accelerates our
‘Recipe for Growth’ strategy, which
also includes growth in our core business and adjacencies, and expansion
internationally.” MBN
between researchers, seed growers
and producers than we have in the
past,” Mr. Schnebly said. “It’s not just
about the products we sell, but also
about the information we can bring to
farmers to help them maximize their
profitability on every acre.
“Plant breeding research is a timeintensive process. Multiple years of
testing at the local and regional level
benefits producers. With this additional facility, we have a good, strong mix
of irrigated and non-irrigated acres
to work with that will help us understand what works well in both types of
areas. It also will expand our work on
some of the key defensive traits in Nebraska and the region, including phytophthora resistance, sudden death
tolerance, soybean cyst nematode and
iron chlorosis tolerance.” MBN
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

http://www.bakingbusiness.com http://www.world-grain.com

Milling & Baking News - February 5, 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milling & Baking News - February 5, 2013