Food Processing - April 2008 - (Page 7)

E D I T O R ’ S P L AT E APRIL 2008 • Volume 69, No. 04 www.foodprocessing.com Now is the time to invest in improving your business. 555 W. Pierce Road, Ste. 301, Itasca, IL 60143 Phone: (630) 467-1300 • Fax: (630) 467-1179 EDITORIAL EdItoR IN ChIEF NEWS & tRENdS MaNagINg EdItoR-dIgItaL daVE FuSaRo dfusaro@putman.net dIaNE tooPS dtoops@putman.net ERIN ERICKSoN eerickson@putman.net People gotta eat tEChNICaL EdItoR MaRK aNthoNy, Ph.d. PLaNt oPERatIoNS EdItoR MIKE PEhaNICh PaCKagINg EdItoR KatE bERtRaNd CoNNoLLy REguLaR CoNtRIbutoRS REguLatoRy CoNSuMER uNdERStaNdINg daVId Joy hoLLIS aShMaN, JaCquELINE bECKLEy REPRINtS MaRKEtINg CLaudIa StaChoWIaK FoStER REPRINtS MaNagER 4295 ohio Street, Michigan City, IN 46360 866-879-9144, Fax: 219-561-2019 claudia@fostereprints.com W hat do you say in times like these to food processors? Caution? Blind optimism? I was faced with that dilemma when I spoke April 2 to the Louisiana Food Processors Conference. Figures released before the conference painted a glum picture of the economy. A February report revealed a net loss of 63,000 jobs, the worst report since March 2003. A March Gallup poll found threequarters of Americans believe we are in a recession, the highest number since 1992. On the other hand, the 2002 U.S. Economic Census (the 2007 one isn’t out yet) showed how poorly most manufacturing sectors have done. There were a couple of exceptions, but two key ones were food and beverages. After all, people gotta eat. Elsewhere, among month-to-month U.S. economic indicators, most of the January 2008 figures were down from December 2007, but retail and foodservice sales eked out a 0.3 percent gain. Headlines from a March Private Label Manufacturers Assn. newsletter: • Store brands ring up $5.4 billion in sales increases (up 7.6 percent in dollars, three times the rate of national brands) • Supermarkets see little evidence of “trading down” • Grocery a star at Wal-Mart, Costco When the Food Marketing Institute took its annual Consumer Trends survey this time last year, it found people were: • Cooking more and eating out less (69 percent) • Eating home-cooked meals at least 3 times per week (78 percent) • Believing home meals are healthier than those eaten out (92 percent; 42 percent believe at-home is “much healthier”) And I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, but we’ve just concluded our annual R&D Survey. When we asked product development people their top priority for 2008, food safety, the obligatory answer, came in first (as expected). But “manufacturing cost reduction” was second, the only answer remotely close to food safety. (Look for the full R&D Survey in our May issue.) What do I distill from all that data? Opportunity. The only way to combat the margin compression going on is to improve the efficiency of your company. Dennis Krause, a former CFO with Triumph Foods who’s now a senior VP for GE Corporate Lending, says the bigger and/or smarter companies will continue to invest now, even when times are tough and capital is tight, because it will buy them market share at the expense of the third- and fourth-tier companies. (More of his comments are in our Capital Spending Report on p.24.) So hold the fort. It may not be a great year, but the food industry is recessionproof. If you have good credit and access to capital, look for opportunities to grow. There’s always opportunity in adversity. Use this time to improve margins. Automate where possible. Investigate lean manufacturing techniques. Learn new ways to manage costs – there’s no better time for an energy management program or a serious look at ingredient sourcing. You may even be able to increase prices. EDITORIAL ADvIsORy BOARD gERRy goMoLKa Vice President-Process Engineering the Stellar group analyst, ag Edwards & Sons Inc. Vice President-Engineering Sara Lee Foods National Food & beverage Industry Leader, grant thornton LLP ChRIStoPhER gRoWE daVE KRaMER dEXtER MaNNINg WILLIaM MCCabE Vice President-Ice Cream, Smith dairy doN NugENt JaMES RICE daRyL thoMaS ELaINE WEdRaL, Ph.d. President/CEo, graceland Fruit Inc. VP & general Mgr.-China Operations, tyson Foods Inc. Vice President-Marketing, herr Foods Inc. President (retired), Nestle R&d Cente DEsIGN & PRODUCTION gRouP aRt dIRECtoR aRt dIRECtoR PRoduCtIoN MaNagER StEPhEN C. hERNER sherner@putman.net JaSoN VaRgaS jvargas@putman.net aNNa MaRIE McCaNN amccann@putman.net ADMINIsTRATIvE sTAFF PRESIdENt aNd CEo JohN CaPPELLEttI VICE PRESIdENt JuLIE CaPPELLEttI-LaNgE VICE PRESIdENt oF CoNtENt KEIth LaRSoN VICE PRESIdENt CIRCuLatIoN JERRy CLaRK CIRCuLatIoN MaNagER PatRICIa doNatIu Dave Fusaro, Editor in Chief E-mail: dfusaro@putman.net April 2008 Food processing • 7 http://www.foodprocessing.com http://www.foodprocessing.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Food Processing - April 2008

Food Processing - April 2008 Contents Editor's Plate NewsBites The Trends Rollout Food Biz Kids Consumer Taste Test - Indulgent, Superpremium Chocolate...at 3 Calories a Pop Cover Story - Annual Capital Spending Report - To Build or Not to Build? Ingredients - Trendy Fruits, Nuts and Vegetables Plant Operations - iPlant: Assessing the State of Automation Plant Operations - Your Sanitation Can Be Greener Packaging - For Which Oven? MRO Q&A New Supplier Products Toops Scoops

Food Processing - April 2008

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