Baking&Snack - December 2011 - 29

Kraft-ing a New Company
Kraf o d w l pl t n w compa ies sometime Kraft Foods will split into two companies sometime in 2012 when it officially separates its $32 billion global snacks f mpan ometime 01 e it ffic ally separat its $ billio global n c l ar billion o oper tion from s 6 illion r th operation from its $16 billion Nor th American grocer y business. The global snack company will consist of current Kraft er o li erica groce b sines Th global ac ompan i c nsis o urrent a t can oc ine ess b nsis ist n F od Europ Foods Europe and Developing Markets units along with its Nor th American snacks and confectionery business. About ods rope d evelopin Market nit alo with ts or h elop ke it erica nacks ca ks onf ctione y u n ss. o t 75% o e loba nack busines 75% of the global snack business will be from snacks around the world and 42% from its rapidly growing operations in ba busi sine l e o snac acks oun th orld n 4 c he l from s apid y rowing p rat ons in ro m d w n deve deve opi g ountries developing countries. elo n es The exceptio w The exception will be the Planters snacks line, scheduled to remain with the grocery business because the brand is e io the P nt s acks line c edule t emai with h roce y us nes beca s the b n is ine, led e ce usin eca mainly concentrated in the US. Additionally, Planters nut and snack sales to supermarket chains and other channels a n oncentrated n e S. ddit on l y, lanter u n na s e to upermarket hain and the chan e t a t permark t r a n n withi he ompany’s uppl chai a g m within the company ’s supply chain align much better with a warehouse network than with the direct-store-delivery thin h pany s ply hain i ett with th a e u e e o k ha wit he irect t re delivery ecti ey busi bu i ess business model used by the cookies and crackers operation, noted Irene Rosenfeld, chairman and CEO of the del sed b h o ie r cker peration, te re e senfe d ch i man d O the kers r ion o e Northfi d L-bas d ompa y duri g Northfield, IL-based company, during a November conference call. t based pany a ovembe con e e ce al . vember conf T o g h fisca 01 t r qua ter, ding Sept. 3 K aft Foods’ loba iscui a e ncrease 9 Through the fiscal 2011 third quar ter, ending Sept. 30, Kraft Foods’ global biscuit sales increased 9% on a constantsc quar t f od loba o n t a nt currency basis. In developing countries, sales of biscuits jumped 26% with China repor ting 55% growth, Brazil up 23% ur ency asis n y is. ve oping countries al s b c its u e 6 oun ies, i h hina eporti ting % r wth, ra i up % h, and Russ a ar g 9% Ms Rosenfeld a d n o and Russia soaring 59%, Ms. Rosenfeld said. In some of these markets, as well as in Europe, Kraft Foods benefited from ss en hese arkets, s e a e e Eur pe raft F d ene e from f distr b t o ynergies t a bury, hich h ompan distribution synergies with Cadbur y, which the company acquired last year, and a broader network of indepent ergie y pany qui e last ea t ear, d r a e e w k ind p n inde dent ist bu ors. dent distributors. t In urope raf oods h lea In Europe, Kraft Foods is the leader in biscuits with a 15% share of the market. Its biscuit sales in Europe grew more ope, s bs u s i 15% hare o he a ket. s iscuit a e 5 t. scu cuit Europ ur e m than w imes aste than than two times faster than the overall biscuit market, with revenue driven by new products and mega brands such as ha e h n v rall s u l rket, ith evenu driven t, e u e n r duc ts nd e rands uc as ds LU, O eo nd elvit Th all, LU, Oreo and Belvita. This fall, the company officially opened its European Biscuit Research and Development Centre in vita This ompan pany ally open d s ropea B cuit Re earch d evelopme t ent n pened pe r h e opme S clay Fran e ea a i The ente Saclay, France, near Paris. The center houses 120 researchers, engineers, nutritionists, baker-pastr y cooks, and product ay, ance uses 120 es archer h gi eers nutritionists s tr o t k r pastr co ks, d roduc try odu an p ckagin ev lop s and packaging developers. ing in lope M R enfe o d a y t t Ms. Rosenfeld told analysts the North American grocery company will remain as Kraft Foods because of the strong orth me c n rocer y ompa y ill ema n K a oods beca s t roce mpany d ca aus h tron n brand recognition in the US and Canada. However, the company is still working on a name for its separate global snack r n recog itio ec to a Ca n a d owev r, ompa a ti workin on ork n ame f t sepa a e loba nac pa loba business I om e business. “I promise you it will be a delicious name,” Ms. Rosenfeld said. sines e il d lici u name c sen e d a ◀ Advances in sophisticated, high-speed flexible primary packaging automation help Kraft Foods reduce repetitive motion and labor-intensive issues usually associated with packaging operations.
KRAFT FOODS

information to automatically adjust process equipment [upstream and] in real time,” he said. Under such a system, the production line would minimize waste by continuously adjusting processing equipment based on information gathered by a string of vision systems guided by preprogrammed quality control parameters and fed into a computer. SEEING AND BEYOND. During the past couple of years, X-ray inspection technology also has taken

quantum leaps and become more affordable because there is an increasing number of competing suppliers in the industry. For a company like Kraft Foods that uses a variety of creative packaging formats, simple metal detection isn’t enough. “We often use metallized film, and with metallized film, traditional magnets and metal detectors don’t work, so you have to go beyond that,” Mr. Koch said. With the trend toward more wholesome foods, more snack

manufacturers are rolling out products with variably sized particulates such as whole grains, fruit, nuts or seeds. Sifting and screening ingredients at critical control points can help manage the issue, but they don’t solve the entire problem. “When you have [a product] that has large particulates in it, you can’t really sift that out so you have to have other means of inspecting it for foreign matter,” Mr. Koch said. “That’s where X-ray technology is helping us a great deal.” Because of these technologies, especially robots that can pick and place a wide variety of different shaped and sized products, the end of the production line has become one of the most advanced areas in recent years. “I think we’ve made more progress in packaging, on that end of the process, than in the front end,” Mr. Koch said. ◾

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December 2011 / BAKING & SNACK

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Baking&Snack - December 2011

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