Milling & Baking News - January 29, 2008 - 10

Business

Weston to cut more jobs at
Entenmann's Bay Shore plant
BAY SHORE, N.Y. - George Weston
Bakeries, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of
Toronto-based George Weston Ltd.,
said it will lay off approximately 250
people at its plant in Bay Shore, Long
Island, over the next two months. The
cutbacks come on top of 350 job cuts
over 18 months announced in Janu-

ary 2007, when Weston said it would
move cookie and cake baking operations from Bay Shore to Albany, N.Y.,
and Pennsylvania, respectively.
When Weston announced the cutbacks last year, Lou Minella, spokesman for Entenmann's, said the facility had become outdated and

inefficient in a region where high
utility costs and taxes have made it
unprofitable to upgrade. Following
last week's announcement, he cited
rising ingredient costs and declining
Danish and pie volume as key factors in the job cuts.
In addition to the Bay Shore facility, Weston Foods operates 24 bread
and cake plants, 6 biscuit and cracker
plants and 4 frozen dough facilities in
the United States. MBN

Horizon Milling adding 3,500 cwts
of milling capacity at Stockton
MINNEAPOLIS - Horizon Milling L.L.C.,
the nation's largest flour milling company,
on Jan. 22 said it will expand daily capacity of its Stockton, Calif., flour mill.
Horizon said the project, which involves adding equipment within the mill's
existing footprint, will raise daily milling
capacity to 15,000 cwts from 11,500 cwts.
The company expects to begin work in

April and to complete the project within
three months.
"We are expanding to fulfill increasing
customer demand in the northern California
area," said Guy R. Shoemaker, president,
Horizon Milling. "As our customers' businesses grow, we want to continue to grow
with them and contribute to their success."
The Stockton mill, located east of San

K.C.B.T., M.G.E. migrate electronic trading to Globex
KANSAS CITY - Electronically traded
products of the Kansas City Board of
Trade and Minneapolis Grain Exchange
were migrated to the CME Globex trading platform on Jan. 13.
Electronic trading hours changed with
the migration to the CME Globex platform. K.C.B.T. hard red winter wheat futures and options and M.G.E.X. hard red
spring wheat futures and options trade
electronically from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Cen-

tral time. Wheat futures on both exchanges trade electronically and by open outcry
from 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m., while wheat
options trade only by open outcry during
that timeframe.
The five M.G.E.X. financially settled
index futures and options contracts trade
continuously from 6 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
Central time. The K.C.B.T. Value Line
Stock Index futures trade electronically
from 5 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

C.F.T.C. commissioners meet with members at K.C. Board of Trade
KANSAS CITY - Michael Dunn
(right), chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission,
and Bart Chilton (left), commissioner, met with members of the
Kansas City Board of Trade in the
Rod Turnbull Room Jan. 17. The
well-attended meeting allowed
exchange members to air their
concerns about a variety of topics.
Drawing the greatest interest were
proposed rule changes to increase
speculative position limits in grain
futures and other proposed changes allowing an exemption from federal speculative position limits for certain risk management positions. Members expressed concerns about any changes that would threaten the convergence of
futures prices with cash markets as contracts approach expiration and also voiced unease about the
market influence of financial investors perceived to be inelastic buyers. At the same time, members
acknowledged the importance of unfettered free markets, both to protect the price discovery function
and to keep the K.C.B.T. competitive. Still another concern expressed by the members was the rising
cost of margin calls for commercial users, associated with futures prices at record high levels. MBN

bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

Francisco, was opened in 1992. It was one
of two flour mills built by Cargill (in addition to numerous mills acquired by the
company). The second mill built by Cargill is located in San Bernardino, east of
Los Angeles.
Horizon Milling, a joint venture of
Cargill and CHS Inc., operates 19 U.S.
flour mills with daily milling capacity of
292,800 cwts, including 20,000 cwts of durum milling capacity. Daily capacity will
be 296,300 cwts with the completion of
the Stockton expansion. MBN
"The Kansas City Board of Trade is
pleased that all U.S. grains contracts will
continue to trade on the same electronic
system for the convenience of our members and market users," said Jeff Borchardt, president and chief executive officer of the K.C.B.T.
"The M.G.E.X. is excited to have
our products on the CME Globex platform," said Mark Bagan, president and
c.e.o. of the M.G.E.X. "We also look
forward to the expanded functionality
that will be forthcoming with migration to this platform."
More than 5.3 million contracts per day
traded on the CME Globex system in 2007.
The CME Group is a CME/Chicago Board
of Trade company. FBN

J.M. Smucker authorizes
increase to buyback plan
ORRVILLE, OHIO - The board of directors of the J.M. Smucker Co. announced
it has increased its share repurchase program by 5 million shares.
Based on the closing price Jan. 22 of $44.66,
that implies a $223.3 million program.
During the third quarter, the company
bought back 1.6 million shares, including the fulfillment of 1.5 million shares
as part of its previously announced Rule
10b5-1 trading plan.
Also on Jan. 22, the company declared a
30c per share dividend, payable March 3
to shareholders of record as of Feb. 15. MBN
Milling & Baking News

January 29, 2008 / 11

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Milling & Baking News - January 29, 2008

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