Milling & Baking News - February 16, 2016 - 4

Contents X

February 16, 2016 Vol. 94, No. 26

X COMPANY PROFILE

X NEWS Comment

Story on Page 1

Unnerving category
slip for bread in
late 2015

Century-old startup
Hostess c.e.o. explains how this
once imperiled business is poised
for growth on numerous fronts

La Brea Bakery to move away
from bioengineered ingredients

King's Hawaiian files complaint
against Alpha Baking

Science supports Oprah's
bread endorsement

A.B.A. overcomes risks, finds
success with policy strategy

Flowers hopeful going into
2016 after difficult 2015

The company commits to making its entire
line of artisan bread non-bioengineered/nonG.M.O. by the end of the year.

IBIE 2016:
The build-up begins
Triennial event expected to
draw more than 20,000 baking
professionals
Story on Page 44

XDEPARTMENTS
7
10
14
16
26
30
46
48
51
61
66

Editorial
Business
Nutrition and Health
Industry Activities
People
Data
Weather Outlook
Financial Results
Ingredient Week Trends
Supplier Innovations
Archive

The lawsuit, which claims Alpha Baking
packaging is "deceptively similar" to King's
Hawaiian packaging, comes after a recent
settlement with Aldi.

Julie Miller Jones, a professor emeritus
of nutrition, says science supports Oprah
Winfrey's claim that she lost weight while
eating bread.

The baking industry achieves a diverse range of
policy objectives, including a more manageable
phase-out of phos and grain servings in the
Dietary Guidelines.

Flowers Foods, Inc. projects sales growth of
5.5% to 8% and earnings-per-share growth
of 6.5% to 13% after gains of 0.7% and 8%,
respectively, in 2015.

There are an endless number of possible
reasons a company's earnings may fall shy of
expectations in any given quarter. The trigger
for a shortfall in the latest quarter of Flowers
Foods, Inc. is especially unsettling. While Flowers
maintained (even built) market share during
the quarter and largely maintained pricing
discipline, the company's sales and earnings fell
far short of its goal. The culprit was weakness in
overall bread category sales, down 1.8% versus
the fourth quarter of 2014. As recently as midNovember, executives of Thomasville, Ga.-based
Flowers didn't see this weakness coming.
For as long as anyone reading this column
can remember, the qualities of the commercial
bread industry have not included flashy
growth rates or wide profit margins. One
attribute valued by the industry has been
reasonable marketplace predictability. For a
business as labor intensive as baking and a
product that is semi-perishable like bread, this
consistency is a crucial prerequisite to sound
operations management.
Trends in baking volumes have been
confounding now for several years. Declines
across a multitude of food categories year after
year seem at odds with the past and with what
could be expected several years into an economic
recovery. Bread was not the only category to
experience an unexpected twist at the end of
2015. Ready-to-eat cereal sales scored a gain in
December, the category's first in several years.
Whether these developments represent shortterm anomalies or the start of a more fundamental
market shift is a question demanding close
attention in the weeks and months ahead. MBN

XCOMPANIES IN THIS ISSUE
Alpha Baking Co. ....................... 11

Flowers Foods, Inc. ..................... 49

Lawrence Foods ......................... 26

Seviroli Foods, Inc. ...................... 10

Archer Daniels Midland Co. .. 12, 49

Harvest Innovations .................... 49

Novozymes ................................ 61

Tatte Bakery & Café .................... 12

Aunt Millie's Bakeries ................. 12

Holton Food Products ................... 8

NuTek Food Science, L.L.C........... 61

Tate & Lyle P.L.C. ........................ 12

Cascade Organic Flour, L.L.C. ...... 12

Hostess Brands, L.L.C.................... 1

Panera Bread Co......................... 12

TreeHouse Foods, Inc. ................... 8

CK Ingredients ........................... 61

Ingredion Inc. ............................. 11

Pingyuan County Juyuan State-

Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. ...... 11

Comax Flavors ........................... 61

Kalman Packaging Inc. ............... 11

Owned Asset Management Co.... 11

Welch's ...................................... 26

ConAgra Foods, Inc....................... 8

Kellogg Co. .................................. 1

Post Holdings ....................... 26, 48

Wendy's Co. ............................... 10

Didion Milling ............................ 26

King's Hawaiian Holding Co........ 11

RPM International ........................ 8

D'Orazio Foods, Inc..................... 10

La Brea Bakery ........................... 10

Sabert Corp. ............................... 11

4 / February 16, 2016 XMilling & Baking News

bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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

Milling & Baking News - February 16, 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milling & Baking News - February 16, 2016