Milling & Baking News - May 11, 2004 - 1

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IAOM
SHOWGUIDE 2 004

Theinewsweeklyiofigrain-basedifoods

MAY 11, 2004

bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

N E W S F E AT U R E
Cargill Sweeteners: After heady
growth, major transformation

uccess as an ingredient supplier
today requires a close alignment of
interests with customers, John E.
Geisler, corporate vice-president of Cargill,
Inc., Wayzata, Minn., said recently in describing how Cargill has transformed itself
in adhering to this idea.
While this prescription may sound benign,
its pursuit has prompted an unprecedented
shift in the way Cargill does business, Mr.
Geisler stated. In addition to a major initiative aimed at increasing the effectiveness of
its 100,000-person workforce, the company
has pressed to find new ways of meeting
customer needs. This shift has included
exploring approaches that do not automatically mean owning production capacity for
all the ingredients it supplies.
The different approaches Cargill now
is willing to take are well illustrated in

its sweetener business. "This is not your
father's sweetener business," said Patrick E.
Bowe, president of Cargill Sweeteners North

America. "There was a time when the most
important thing was to deliver on-time and
in-spec. It was the customer's job to integrate
the ingredient into their food products. Product reliability is still critical, but today more

and more customers are looking to us to help
them develop product innovations."
The sweetener business was built through
a mix of acquisitions, partnerships, alliances
and new plant construction. The company's
first plant, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was acquired in 1967. Since then it has grown to nine
U.S. plants, eight owned by Cargill and one
leased from a farmer-owned cooperative.
The Cerestar acquisition in 2002 is the
most recent dramatic step taken by Cargill
to grow and reshape its sweetener business. Indeed, the $1.1-billion transaction
was the largest acquisition of any kind by
the corporation. It has solidified Cargill's
position as the world's largest corn wet
miller by coupling Cerestar's prominence
in Western Europe with Cargill's presence
in Eastern Europe, Turkey, China and Brazil, in addition to the United States.
Mr. Bowe said it was much more than
Cerestar's physical assets that made the acquisition attractive to Cargill. "The appeal
was around their technology and product
Continued on Page 19

Wirthlin and Mullen convene to
finalize public relations proposal
RESTON, VA. - Two agencies that have
been working intensively on different aspects of a grain-based foods product promotion program came together last week
to finalize details of the plan.
For the past several months, WirthlinWorldwide Research, Reston, has been
conducting thorough research into consumer attitudes toward grain-based foods.
The group's preliminary findings have
been presented before industry groups.
More recently, Mullen, a Wenham, Mass.-

based public relations firm has begun to
draft creative ideas for a p.r. campaign.
Top representatives of the organizations
met May 6 at Wirthlin headquarters in
Reston. The meeting will be followed on
June 9 by a formal program proposal by
Wirthlin and Mullen to representatives of
the American Bakers Association and the
North American Millers' Association at a
meeting in Washington.
Both NAMA and the A.B.A. have
Continued on Page 9
inside

MGPI sees earnings as
much as 35% higher
than earlier guidance
ATCHISON, KAS. - With one quarter
remaining in fiscal 2004, MGP Ingredients
has sharply raised its earnings guidance
for the year. The specialty ingredients
manufacturer also announced surging
profits and sales in the third quarter.
MGPI revised its earnings guidance for
the fiscal year ending June 30 to $1.30 to
$1.35 per share, up from the previously
announced range of $1 to $1.10. At the
Continued on Page 14

THIS WEEK

Two K.C.
terminal
elevators to
Bartlett

Ingredient

Quarterly
profits surge
at Canada
Bread

Three
promoted to
senior v.p.
at ADM

Week
30

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

Milling & Baking News - May 11, 2004

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