Milling & Baking News - July 28, 2009 - 12

Business 

Lallemand acquires yeast business
in United Kingdom from Lesaffre
MONTREAL - Marking its second
acquisition in as many months, Lallemand Inc. has acquired GB Ingredients Ltd. from Cie des Levures
Lesaffre.
The transaction, which closed
July 16, gives Lallemand the GBI
business in the United Kingdom
and Ireland with a production facility in Felixstowe, roughly 85 miles
northeast of London on the eastern
coast of England.
The plant is the largest of only

two bakers' yeast plants operating in the U.K. The facility
produces bakers' and
distillers' fresh cream
and compressed yeast
as well as instant dry
yeast for the European
and world markets.
The transaction followed a similar
one a month earlier in which Lallemand acquired the GBI business in
Spain and Portugal. With the acquisitions, Lallemand has as significant

Stella D'oro Biscuit Co. responds
to union allegations
BRONX, N.Y. - Stella D'oro Biscuit Co., which earlier this month
announced plans to close its Bronx
bakery operations in October, issued
a statement July 22 accusing the Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionery,
Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers
of, among other things, spreading
misinformation.
The union's workers were engaged in a lengthy strike before returning to work July 7. Since that
time, the union has filed charges
with the National Labor Relations

Board seeking to block the facility
shutdown and demanding Stella
D'oro reopen negotiations. The
union has said the closing is in retaliation for the stand its workers
took last August.
Stella D'oro, meanwhile, said it
has undertaken a number of critical strategic actions since being
acquired by Brynwood Partners
in January 2006, ranging from introducing new products to investing $11 million to purchase
modern equipment. Despite those

Cakes.com bakes world's largest cupcake
MINNEAPOLIS - JodiLee Knops, cakes.com pastry chef, celebrates setting the
Guinness World Record for the world's largest cupcake at Mall of America on July
18. The solid cupcake measured roughly 1 foot high by 2 feet wide and weighed
150 lbs, including 15 lbs of fudge filling and 60 lbs of yellow icing. The cupcake,
which yielded 1,500 servings, was created as part of the Mall of America's celebration of SpongeBob SquarePants' 10th anniversary. MBN

12 / July 28, 2009 Milling & Baking News

a presence in Europe as in North
America, the company said.
"Combined with its leading positions in southern Africa and in specialty yeast markets, these recent
acquisitions underline Lallemand's commitment
to investing in the ongoing development of
world yeast markets,"
the company said. Lallemand has 2,000 employees in
more than 30 countries, and operates U.S. plants in Memphis, Tenn.,
and Baltimore, as well as a facility
in Montreal where the company is
headquartered. MBN
actions, the company said it has
continued to lose money, including more than $3 million in operating losses since 2006 primarily
due to its uncompetitive labor cost
structure.
"Contrary to misleading statements that the company is profitable, just not as profitable as its investors would like, the fact is that
the company was and still is losing
considerable amounts of money
each year," Stella D'oro said.
The company went on to note that
its request for wage and benefit concessions was reasonable if the facility is to continue to operate in the
Bronx. As it currently stands, Stella
D'oro said the union's pay scale
"is completely out of sync with the
Bronx community and today's economic reality."
In its statement Stella D'oro also
shed some light on what it plans to
do if no agreement with the union
is reached.
"The union has mistakenly assumed that Stella D'oro's July 6,
2009, announcement that it is exploring strategic alternatives means
that production currently at the
Bronx facility will be outsourced,"
Stella D'oro said. "While this is one
of the strategic alternatives available to the company, other strategic alternatives include selling the
business as a going concern, selling the business to a buyer with its
own manufacturing capabilities, or
permanently closing the plant and
selling off the company's assets
among others. The company will
thoroughly consider and evaluate
all potential alternatives, and under
any scenario, Stella D'oro will fully
comply with all of its obligations to
bargain with the union." MBN
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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

Milling & Baking News - July 28, 2009

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