Milling & Baking News - April 28, 2015 - 1

THE NEWS WEEKLY OF GRAIN-BASED FOODS
APRIL 28, 2015

bakingbusiness.com / foodbusinessnews.net

AIB INSERT

Flowers cutting ingredient count
in Nature's Own by nearly half
Annual
REPORT 2014

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LATE NEWS

Bimbo profitability
improves in quarter
MEXICO CITY - Operating income of the U.S. and Canada business of Grupo Bimbo S.A.B. de C.V.
was 342 million pesos ($22 million)
in the first quarter ended March 31,
up 264% from 94 million pesos in the
first quarter last year. Net sales were
24,935 million pesos ($1,628 million),
up 35% from 18,415 million. The
higher profits for the quarter were
attributed by the company to lower
costs associated with the company's
"reconfiguration and optimization
strategy." The company has invested
heavily in plant closings and other
cost savings initiatives in recent
years. The costs totaled 439 million
Continued on Page 8

NEW YORK - Flowers Foods, Inc. is
in the process of cutting the number of
ingredients in Nature's Own bread to
14 from 26, said Bradley
K. Alexander, executive vice-president and
chief operating officer of
Flowers Foods.
Speaking April 14 at
an investor's day presentation held at the New
York Stock Exchange,
Mr. Alexander and his
colleagues described the
change both as fitting
within the evolution of
Nature's Own dating back decades as
well as part of a clean label initiative at
Flowers.
"To grow our sales beyond the core
white bread segment, we introduced
the (Nature's Own) brand in 1977," he
said. "It offered consumers a soft wheat

bread with no artificial preservatives,
colors or flavors. Over the years, we've
continued to introduce varieties under
the brand with betterfor-you attributes, including sugar free, low
carbs, high fiber and
whole grains."
In 2009, high-fructose
corn syrup was eliminated as an ingredient.
"More recently we are
working to reduce the
number of ingredients
by almost half," he said.
The announcement
by Mr. Alexander came about two
months after Allen L. Shiver, president
and chief executive officer, said the company is "working to enhance our current products by improving quality."
Mr. Shiver made the remarks during a
Continued on Page 18

Per capita flour consumption
holds steady once again
WASHINGTON - Extending what has
been a period of unprecedented stability, per capita disappearance of wheat
flour in the United States was 135 lbs
in 2014. The estimate, issued by the
Economic Research Service of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture along with
its April "Wheat Outlook," was precisely the same figure as in 2013 and was
within a single pound of the per capita

figure of every year but one dating back
to 2009.
The stability in per capita consumption of recent years, which really dates
back to near the start of the 21st century
in 2002, stands in marked contrast to
the experience of the 20th century when
consumption began by its downtrend to
past the half-way mark followed by a
third of a century of dramatic gains toward the century's end. During that 100
years there were hardly two years of per
capita being unchanged, much less anything approaching the recent record.
Those earlier movements yielded
wrenching changes, with per capita consumption dropping from 224 lbs in 1902
to a low of 110 in 1971, only to snap back
Continued on Page 46

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Milling & Baking News - April 28, 2015

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