Meat+Poultry - April 2017 - 10

BUSINESS NOTES

JBS ACQUIRES PLUMROSE USA
Officials with Greeley, Colorado-based
JBS USA announced on March 13 an
agreement to acquire Plumrose USA,
a subsidiary of Danish Crown A/S
in a deal valued at $230 million. The
acquisition expands the JBS portfolio to
include the prepared foods and valueadded categories, with products that
include bacon, deli meats, hams and
cooked ribs. Plumrose annual revenues
are estimated at $500 million. JBS will
take over operations at two processing
plants in Iowa as well as three others
in Mississippi, Vermont and Indiana.
The deal also includes two distribution
centers in Indiana and Mississippi.

"We are excited to
welcome the more than
1,200 dedicated team
members of Plumrose
USA to JBS."

US FOODS TO PURCHASE
SRA FOODS
US Foods has agreed to acquire SRA
Foods, a Birmingham, Alabama-based
meat processor and distributor with
annual sales of approximately $80
million. The transaction is expected
to close in late March. Terms of the
acquisition were not disclosed.
SRA Foods is a family owned
company that was founded as a butcher
shop in Birmingham in 1940. Today
the company operates a 70,000-sq.-ft.
facility featuring a product line of more
than 1,000 items. The company also
runs a fleet of nearly 20 trucks.
US Foods will continue to operate
the SRA foods facility in Birmingham,
which will become part of US
Foods' Stock Yards organization. The
Stock Yards division provides customcut and packaged meat and seafood
products. After the acquisition, US
Foods anticipates adding more than 100
employees to the operations.

- ANDRE NOGUEIRA

10

MEAT+ POULTRY | 04.17 | www.meatpoultry.com

MCDONALD'S WORKS TO
RECAPTURE CUSTOMERS
Some of McDonald's best customers
aren't visiting as much as they used to.
McDonald's knows why.
"As customer expectations
increased and evolved, our historical
advantages of quality, convenience
and value didn't keep pace," said Lucy
Brady, senior vice president, corporate
strategy & business development at
McDonald's Corp.
At the company's investor meeting
on March 1 in Chicago, Brady, along
with other McDonald's executives,
laid out plans to recapture share in
the quick-serve restaurant market,
where McDonald's has lost 500 million
transactions to competitors since 2012.
"Let's start with quality," Brady
said. "We're making meaningful
improvements in our food, particularly
our burger and chicken offerings,
to rekindle growth and recapture
lost share. We will become the go-to
destination once again by enhancing

Recent changes on McDonald's
menu include the removal of artificial
preservatives from Chicken McNuggets,
the switch from margarine to butter
on Egg McMuffin sandwiches and
a commitment to using 100 percent
cage-free eggs.
McDonald's also has seen success
with tailored snacking offers around
the world, such as desserts in Latin
America and baked goods in France.
"And we'll continue to encourage
markets to innovate to meet the
untapped demands that exist in
the afternoons and in the evenings,
and we'll be more purposeful about
identifying and scaling winning ideas
from our markets," Brady said.
Delivery represents another
opportunity for McDonald's, which
already offers delivery service in more
than 3,500 restaurants around the world,
primarily in Asia and the Middle East.
The company is "working
aggressively" to define the right model
for delivery, exploring both in-house
and third-party options, with a number
of pilots under way in the United
States, Asia and Europe.
Another pillar of McDonald's plan to
win back consumers is value, said Chris
Kempczinski, president of McDonald's
US business.
"Our initial McPick program helped
to slow these losses, but quite honestly
it wasn't strong enough," he said.
"While customers love flexibility of
McPick, the program offered too many
value combinations, which diluted its
overall impact in the market."

Jasni / Shutterstock.com

"Today's announcement is further
demonstration of our commitment to
disciplined growth through strategic
acquisitions that further diversify our
product portfolio, expand our branded
offerings and strengthen our direct
relationship with consumers," said
Andre Nogueira, CEO, JBS USA. "We
are excited to welcome the more than
1,200 dedicated team members of
Plumrose USA to JBS and look forward
to building on the legacy of high-quality
products and outstanding service
established by Danish Crown."
With annual revenues estimated at
$500 million, JBS said in a statement
that the acquisition "is a continuation
of JBS' strategy of expanding its
portfolio of branded, high value-added
prepared foods, and strengthens
its customer base and geographical
distribution in the United States."
Both companies' boards of directors
endorsed the agreement and the deal
will be subject to regulatory review and
US antitrust approval.

the taste and quality of our core classics
and by enticing guests back with new
menu items and local flavors that
reflected their evolving preferences."
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Meat+Poultry - April 2017

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