Milling & Baking News - December 14, 2010 - 12

Business 

Smucker sees continued strength in Dunkin'
brand, eyes international expansion
NEW YORK - Successful new
products, double-digit growth in
the Dunkin' Donuts coffee line and
potential international growth opportunities have executives at J.M.
Smucker Co. optimistic of "some
light at the end of the tunnel."
"We are all familiar with the
economic environment," Richard
Smucker, executive chairman and
co-chief executive officer of Orrville,
Ohio-based Smucker, told analysts
at the Citi Food Manufacturing
Conference held Dec. 1. "One thing
we would say is that we are seeing
some light at the end of the tunnel
- it's not a train. The only concern,
though, is the tunnel is a little longer than we all anticipated. So it has
taken us a little longer to get out of
that tunnel, but we see some positive
coming in the next several months.
"Consumers continue to search
for value ... and we see that as
continuing, although we do see
a change in terms of the deep discounting. We think that some of that
will stop, we think after the first of
the year, although you may not see

this much, we think we'll see it in
some of our results."
New products coupled with
heavy advertising for the company's top brands have played a key
role in Smucker 's ability to maintain
steady growth. Snack'n Waffles and
a line of no-sugar Pillsbury products have led the way. Additionally,
Mr. Smucker said the company's Jif

To Go has done extremely well since
Smucker "liberated peanut butter
from the jar."
In an update on the company's
$2 billion coffee business, Vincent
Byrd, president of U.S. Retail Coffee at Smucker, said that while the
growth of the Red Can business is
necessary to the long-term success
of the U.S. retail coffee business, the
company is performing extremely
well in other areas at the moment.
"Probably the most exciting news
was our announcement of our arrangement with Green Mountain
and Keurig to enter into the K-Cup
single-serve space," Mr. Byrd said.
"We started shipping those products about eight weeks ago. It has
been accepted by every major retailer. We'll be the first national brand
to be marketed in the traditional
grocery segment."
He said the arrangement contributed about 2% of Smucker coffee
sales during the past quarter, even

My Dough Girl changes name to RubySnap
SALT LAKE CITY - Tami Cromar, the owner of Salt Lake City-based
My Dough Girl, has renamed her gourmet frozen cookie dough shop
RubySnap. The decision follows a legal dispute brought forward by General Mills, Inc. earlier this year in which the Minneapolis-based company
claimed the My Dough Girl name was too similar to its existing trademarks
for some of its key products, including its iconic Pillsbury Doughboy.
Ms. Cromar said her company complied with the name change because
she did not have the money to fight General Mills.
The My Dough Girl name was inspired by the pin-up girl images used as
"nose art" on World War II bombers.
On the RubySnap Facebook page, Ms. Cromar described the new company name as "Sassy like my personality, red is my favorite color, jiffy rhymes
with spiffy ... but that has nothing to do with it. It's hip, it's retro, and it's
been living in my head for months! It took awhile to let go, but I'm officially
in love with the new name." MBN
12 / December 14, 2010 Milling & Baking News

though the company did not start
shipping until the second month of
the quarter.
Another strong performer within
the coffee business has been the
Dunkin' Donuts brand, which continues to grow at a double-digit clip.
"You may not know that (Dunkin'
Donuts) was originally thought to
be about a $50 million brand when
Procter & Gamble entered into that
relationship," Mr. Byrd said. "It's
now over a $250 million brand for
us. It's our highest growing brand
within our portfolio."
Mr. Byrd said more opportunities
exist for the Dunkin' brand through
expanded distribution, new products
and turn in shelf space of the core
items. Among the new products recently introduced is Dunkin' Pumpkin Spice, which Mr. Byrd said was
the No. 2 selling bag coffee at a major
retailer during a recent four-week period, second only to Dunkin' Original.
With new products in the baking
and oils segment hitting the market
and the U.S. retail coffee business
up and running, Mr. Smucker for
the first time in a while shed light
on what may be in store for the company going forward - international
expansion.
"When we bought Jif and Crisco
in 2002, we had several international operations at that time," Mr.
Smucker said. "And part of our divestitures was really to focus our
effort on making sure we did that
acquisition right, because it was
transformational. So we got out of
the business that we had in the U.K.,
we got out of the business that we
had in Brazil and in Australia. And
that really was good for us, because
it really focused our management
time and attention.
"We really believe that now we
are in a position that we can look beyond North America. And so we've
looked around the world and said,
'Where would we want to spend
some management time?' And if
you look at Europe, it's a very mature market - we don't think we
can really add much there. But, if
you are going to spend any time, we
have to spend our time outside the
United States looking at the China
market. I mean, it's just for all the
reasons you all know, and the rumor
here is that it's just the fastest-growing economy. And if you can have
a play in that market long term, it's
going to be a bigger play than anywhere else." MBN
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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

Milling & Baking News - December 14, 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milling & Baking News - December 14, 2010