Milling & Baking News - March 8, 2022 - 20

SOSLAND PUBLISHING
years
The news of grain-based foods
bakingbusiness.com
After major moves,
Heckman says Bunge now
positioned for growth
11
H
aving effected major change over
the course of 2019 and 2020, Gregory
A. Heckman, chief executive
officer of Bunge Ltd., said the company's
portfolio-reshaping phase " is really behind
us. " Going forward, Bunge is structurally
positioned for success and more likely to be
a buyer than a seller of businesses.
" We've earned the right to grow, " he said.
" We've put the performance together a number
of quarters in a row for the last year and a
half, and now we start to look at growth. "
In an interview with Milling & Baking
News, Mr. Heckman detailed the rationale
behind major changes instituted at the
company over the past two years. He said
the company's position as a leading global
oilseed processor offers an ideal platform
for growth as well as expansion into complementary
businesses.
Mr. Heckman was named CEO in January
2019 at a time the company was struggling.
Mr. Heckman had joined the board of directors
three months earlier to help conduct a
comprehensive strategic review and took
the top spot while the board ran a search
process for a permanent CEO. Sensing both
an immediate opportunity to elevate the
company and the frustration of the company's
global leaders seeking to move the company
forward, he asked to be named acting
rather than interim CEO.
" I said, 'Look I need to be acting because I
think we've got a lot to do,' " he said. " We've
got priorities, and I need to be able to make
decisions and the team needs to understand
I'm empowered. That they're not going to
just wait a few months until the next CEO
shows up. "
In those early days, Mr. Heckman said
he was struck by what he discovered about
Bunge, a company he thought he knew and
understood well as a board member and
before that, a longtime competitor as an
agribusiness executive.
" You know how it is in this industry, "
he explained. " You're customers. You're
CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
BIMBO QSR TO INVEST
IN GEORGIA PLANT
The new facility will bake hamburger,
hot dog and sandwich buns for
quick-service restaurants
28
ANCIENT GRAINS
TAP INTO AT-HOME
BREAKFAST TRENDS
Two examples are teff's nutty flavor
in cereal and sorghum in gluten-free
pancakes
Content and Integrity:
the Milling & Baking News story
38
SOFT RED PRODUCTION
SEEN JUMPING 25%
North American Millers' Association
committee projecting 2021 crop of 333
million bushels
BY LAURIE GORTON
The 100-year-old magazine helps managers keep supply and demand in balance by
assisting the industry in keeping its eye on the ball.
T
he mission was ambitious, and so
were the three brothers who established
the trade journal known
today as Milling & Baking News. Now
reaching its milestone 100th year, the publication
launched by Samuel, David and
Sanders Sosland on March 7, 1922, as The
Southwestern Miller has lived up to their
promises ... and much more.
At the heart of this very commercial
venture was an absolute commitment to
the integrity of its content. This approach
proved its value time after time. At first,
that duty was to the millers of the southwestern
United States; it would grow to
encompass the whole world.
The new magazine addressed readers
in a box on the cover of its Vol. 1, No. 1
issue by describing the journal's purpose:
" The Southwestern Miller will voice specifically
the news of the Southwest, which,
as the largest producer of flour and as
the leader in the extension of wheat production,
should command the attention
not only of millers but of flour handlers
throughout the world. "
L. Joshua Sosland, president, Sosland
Publishing Co.; editor, Milling & Baking
News; and editor-in-chief, Food Business
News, emphasized, " Equally important
was a pledge in the first issue to 'strive for
accuracy, to be fair, to be prompt and to
labor unceasingly to render the service
(we have) undertaken to perform.' "
SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS
Why was Kansas City such an
20
appealing place in 1922 for a new business-to-business
newspaper to serve the
grain-based foods industry? Simply put,
the time was ripe for the flour and grain
business community and for the hard red
winter wheat grown in Colorado, Kansas,
Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.
In the early 1920s, forceful economic
change was blowing through wheat farms
and flour mills throughout the nation.
Until then, the wheat business divided
itself into distinct zones with highly
localized markets. Flour milled from
wheat grown in the Southwest went primarily
into the family flour market, while
white wheat growers and millers in the
Northwest (the Dakotas, Minnesota and
Montana) mostly sold flour to commercial
bakeries. During World War I, however,
the US Army took advantage of the abundant
supply of lower-cost hard red winter
March 2022 marks 100 years since the founding
of Sosland Publishing Company, the publisher of
Milling & Baking News. To mark the anniversary of
a century of providing food industry professionals
timely information, news and commentary, the
company has commissioned retired longtime editor
Laurie Gorton to author histories of each of the
company's publications.
bakingbusiness.com
TUES | 05 04 2021
SOSLAND PUBLISHING CO.
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Milling & Baking News - March 8, 2022

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