Milling & Baking News - August 19, 2014 - 12

Business 

Snyder's-Lance renovating
sandwich crackers platform
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Call it the company's version of "Extreme Makeover." Snack foods maker Snyder'sLance is calling on all hands to reshape
its sandwich crackers business.
"A lot of us have had renovations
at our home or maybe we built a new
home and we're all excited about
when we walk into that new kitchen
and get a chance to enjoy it for the very
first time," Carl Lee, president and
chief executive officer, said during an
Aug. 7 conference call with analysts to
discuss second-quarter earnings. "But
leading up to that is a lot of heavy
lifting, a lot of dust and a lot of mess.
And that's exactly what we're going
through with our sandwich crackers."
Despite the mess, Mr. Lee said he's
excited about the renovation. He likened it to the changes the company incorporated in its Cape Cod potato chip
business 18 months ago.
"Cape Cod went through a very
similar renovation back in 2012, where
we went in and upgraded our manufacturing facilities to improve our
capacity and our utilization and our
quality," he said. "Went through some
heavy lifting there. We went in and ...
strategically dug into the brand and
worked on our packaging, worked on
our positioning, worked on our flavors, worked on our (limited batch)
and did a lot of things to really improve the overall franchise, and now
because of that we're enjoying some
incredible growth."
Changes to the Cape Cod chips line
included introductions such as waffle

chips in 2012 and an emphasis in 2013
on reduced-fat products.
Now, Mr. Lee said Snyder's-Lance
is going down a similar path with its
sandwich crackers business.
"We've upgraded our packaging,"
he said. "It takes a long time, though,
to be able to transition all the s.k.u.s
(stock-keeping units) because it's important that you move them all over

as quickly as you can. But it's taken us
about 15 months to do that because of
all the lines that have had to be converted. We've also repositioned just
the image and the marketing reach
with it. But by being able to do that,
as I mentioned earlier, Bolds has been
successful, and we've been able to
launch Bolds because of some of the
renovation we're putting our sandwich crackers through."
Mr. Lee said the packaging conversion should be complete in October.

DuPont Pioneer to build soybean
research facility in Delaware
NEWARK, DEL. - DuPont Pioneer
said it plans to build a $35 million
soybean research facility at its Stine
Haskell Research Center in Newark. The 134,000-square-foot plant
will include two automated greenhouses and is expected to be completed in 2016, with room for future
expansion.
"The new DuPont Pioneer Delaware soybean research facility will
advance our research and development pipeline and enhance the value
of Pioneer brand soybean varieties
for our grower customers by protecting yield and increasing oil and
12 / August 19, 2014 Milling & Baking News

protein content," said Neal Gutterson, vice-president of agricultural
biotechnology, DuPont Pioneer.
"This research is an important part of the DuPont
strategic focus on agriculture and nutrition against
the backdrop of an increasing world population and
demand for more food."
DuPont Pioneer said the
soybean research facility
is located near its agricultural biotechnology trait
research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington,

He admitted the sandwich cracker
category is not performing as well as
the company would like.
"We're running into a little bit of
headwinds," he explained. "We're
also running into some kind of selfinflicted changes that we need to go
through as we renovate."
Overall, though, Mr. Lee was upbeat
about the ability of sandwich crackers
to bounce back strongly.
"I'm excited about sandwich crackers because if you take a look at the portability and the ability to deliver nutrition, ability to deliver convenience,
to deliver protein and all the things
consumers are looking for, there's really no better format than sandwich
crackers to be able to do that," he said.
"But we had to take time to go back
and reposition the brand."
In spite of some headwinds on
sandwich crackers, Mr. Lee said
Snyder's-Lance delivered 3% revenue and 3% volume growth in the
category, which is a little higher than
the overall averages of the company's
competitors.
Net income at Snyder's-Lance in
the second quarter ended June 28 was
$11,677,000, equal to 17c per share on
the common stock, down 10% from
$12,979,000, or 19c per share, in the
same period a year ago. Excluding special items, net income was $20,619,000,
up from $16,903,000 a year ago. Net
revenue totaled $399,596,000, up 6%
from $378,489,000.
For the six months ended June 28,
net income was $28,493,000, or 41c per
share, down 13% from $32,822,000, or
47c per share, in the same period a year
ago. Net revenue was $772,612,000, up
5% from $737,030,000. MBN
Del. The new facility will be home to
experts in advanced genetic discovery to develop and test the newest
products and traits in the company's growing research and development pipeline. The new, automated
greenhouses include a soybean plant
movement system that will
increase research efficiency, DuPont Pioneer said.
Built with sustainability
in mind, the greenhouses
will feature three 60,000
gallon rain water cisterns
to harvest, filter and re-use
run-off.
Pioneer began soybean
operations in 1973 and is a
world leader in agricultural biotechnology. MBN
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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Milling & Baking News - August 19, 2014

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