NEWS & ANALYSIS
NEWS OF INDUSTRY
Dean Foods completes joint venture with Land O’Lakes; acquires pickle business from Agrilink Foods
Deans Foods Company, Franklin Park, Ill., has completed the purchase of Land O’Lakes Upper Midwest fluid milk operations. The two companies have also formed a joint venture to nationally market and license value-added fluid and cultured dairy products to further expand the Land O’Lakes brand name. The purchase includes all the operating assets of Land O’Lakes Fluid Dairy Division, including four dairy plants located in Woodbury (Twin Cities area) and Thief River Falls, Minn., Bismarck, N.D., and Sioux Falls, S.D., as well as a new, extended-shelf-life dairy and cultured plant in Richland Center, Wis. Land O’Lakes will be the long-term agent for supplying the raw milk requirements of the plants acquired by Dean Foods.
In addition, Dean Foods Company has purchased the Nalley’s pickle business, based in Tacoma, Wash., from Agrilink Foods, Inc. The acquired business sells pickle, pepper, and relish products under the Nalley’s and Farman’s brand names.
Haarmann & Reimer forms alliance with Morishita Jintan Co.
Haarmann & Reimer, Teterboro, N.J. and Morishita Jintan Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan, have formed a partnership to jointly research, develop, and manufacture microencapsulated flavors for use in foods, beverages, and other products. Jintan, manufacturer of gelatin capsules, will encapsulate flavors for H&R’s Evocap product line. Benefits include better protection of flavors from such outside influences as oxidation, instant taste pleasure in chewable products, and making liquid flavors available for dry products.
Malting barley R&D facility established in Winnipeg
Members of the Canadian malting barley industry have become partners in the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The new facility will become a focal point for applied technical research and market support for Canada’s malting barley marketers, processors, and their customers, both in Canada and internationally. It will focus on applied research and pilot-scale malting and brewing tests of registered Canadian varieties, as well as providing customer support and educational programs. Specific research and technical projects will operate on a fee-for-service basis.
The Canadian malting industry is Western Canada’s biggest customer, purchasing just over one million tonnes per year. Exports to the U.S. total about 700,000 tonnes annually, total Canadian malting barley exports are about 1.5 million tonnes per year. This demand has created the need for a larger pool of high quality malting barley as well as continued research, development, and testing of newer, better varieties.
The new Centre was established by the Canadian Wheat Board, the Canadian Grain Commission, and a number of other interested organizations in the industry. Work is now underway on equipment selection for the pilot facility and full operation is expected to begin early in 2001.
New refinery applies state-of-the-art technology at Cerestar USA
A new corn syrup refinery at Cerestar USA, Hammond, Ind., is now in production, producing maltodextrins and spray-dried corn syrup solids. The flexibility of the technology will allow the new refinery to also produce new high maltose specialty syrups created for sugar replacement in confectionary, dairy, and bakery products.
At the new refinery, an all-enzymatic conversion process is used, and ion-exchange finishing replaces the previous carbon filtration finishing process. This process removes ash, or ions, from the finished product and results in a product that is stable to heat punishment and has improved clarity and consistent mineral content. Ion-exchange finishing also produces a blander flavor profile, important to food processors who do not want the addition of corn starches to alter the flavor of a finished food product. Ion exchange also may remove amino acids and other nitrogen-containing components that are responsible for browning during storage and subsequent heating of products. The installation also includes new flash pressure vessels that more precisely control temperature during the starch liquifaction process, making a more stable product.
In addition to improving product quality, the $30 million investment for the new refinery also doubles Cerestar USA’s production capacity for maltodextrins and corn syrup solids.
Tate & Lyle sells Australian company; buys remaining interest in Amylum and A.E. Staley
Tate & Lyle PLC, London, England, has sold its wholly owned Australian sugar business, Tate & Lyle Bundaberg, of Brisbane, and associated businesses, to Belgium-based Société Financière des Sucres s.a. Included in the sale are Bundaberg’s raw sugar and sugar refining business, a 50% interest in Bundaberg Rum [operated in partnership with United Distillers and Vintners (Australia) Limited]; and Bundaberg’s engineering business, Bundaberg Foundry Engineering Limited.
In a separate transaction, Tate & Lyle has agreed with Compagnie Industrielle et Financière des Produits Amylaces S.A. (CIP), an investment group based in Luxembourg, to acquire the minority interests held by CIP in Tate & Lyle’s European and U.S. starch subsidiaries—Amylum, the European producer of cereal sweeteners and starches (36.7%), and A.E. Staley, the corn wet miller company (10.0%). Upon completion, Tate & Lyle will own 100% of Amylum and A.E. Staley.
It is expected that this acquisition, together with the sale of Bundaberg, marks a strategic step for the Tate & Lyle Group, enabling it to focus on the combined businesses of Amylum and A.E. Staley as value added carbohydrate processors worldwide.
Company News in Brief
• Industri Kapital, a European private equity firm, and Tetra Laval, Stockholm, Sweden, signed an agreement for Industri Kapital 2000 Fund to purchase Alfa Laval, with the intention of developing Alfa Laval as a global leader in equipment for separation, heat transfer, and fluid handling. Shares in the company expect to be listed publicly within five years. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals in several jurisdictions, including the European Union.
• The Fine Ingredients Division of Ashland Distribution Company, Dublin, Ohio, was named authorized distributor in the U.S. and Canada for Alfred L. Wolff Products’ Advanced Confectionery Coatings line. Wolff’s processing and production facility is located in Hamburg, Germany.
• Two of the United Kingdom’s suppliers of high grade flavor ingredients, Britannia Natural Products Ltd., Bury St. Edmonds, and The Talin Company, Birkenhead, have merged to form a new company under the Britannia Natural Products Ltd. name. Both companies were recently acquired by The Braes Group.
• Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives, St. Paul, Minn., has acquired the tortilla and lefse business of Bec-Lin of Perham, Inc., a privately owned Minnesota-based company. The company’s products, Monteray Wraps and El Gran Deli tortillas, Scandinavian Premium, and Aunt Julia lefse, will now be manufactured at Cenex Harvest States’ New Brighton, Minn., facility.
• ConAgra Beef Company, Greeley, Colo., is building a new office headquarters in Greeley. Construction began in September, with completion scheduled for the summer of 2001. The new office, housing all 550 employees of the company, will bring together under one roof all the meat operating companies of ConAgra Beef.
• Dakota Growers Pasta Company, Carrington, N.D., and Gruppo Euricom of Italy recently formed a strategic marketing alliance, where Dakota Growers will market Gruppo Euricom’s premium Italian pasta and risotto to North American supermarket retailers, foodservice operators, and ingredient food processors.
• The IBA Food Safety Division, Memphis, Tenn., has opened a new, electronically driven ionization X-ray test center at its accelerator facility in Edgewood, Long Island, N.Y. The new center will test a variety of food products such as ready-to-eat meats, raw poultry, ground beef, and fresh and frozen vegetables, and is designed to allow food companies to treat their products with precise doses of X-ray.
• International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., New York, N.Y., recently opened a new 30,000-sq-meter flavors production facility in Taubaté, Brazil, near São Paulo. The site, which is expected to generate 200 new positions in the area, replaces IFF’s former flavors facility in Rio de Janeiro. It consolidates IFF’s Brazilian flavor operations under one roof and will more than double the company’s flavors production capacity in Latin America.
• McCormick & Company, Incorporated, Sparks, Md., has agreed in principle to purchase the Ducros business from Eridania Béghin-Say. Headquartered in France, the Ducros business, which produces spices and herbs, and dessert aid products, has five manufacturing locations in France, Portugal, and Albania.
• Paar Physica USA, U.S. distributor of rheometers and viscometers manufactured by Anton Paar GmbH, Graz, Austria, and its subsidiary, Physica Messtechnik, Stuttgart, Germany, has moved its company headquarters from Eatontown, N.J. to Glen Allen, Va., as part of a company reorganization and to be nearer to its sister company, Anton Paar USA in Richmond, Va. For more information, contact Paar Physica USA at 804-266-5553; fax 804-266-6176; E-mail: [email protected]; Web site: www.paarphysica.com.
• AMPC, Inc., Ames, Iowa, (formerly American Meat Protein Corporation) has changed its name to Proliant, Inc. to better describe the company and its breadth of products and services. Three business units within the company have also changed their names—AMPC Food Products Division is now Proliant Ingredients; AMPC Biologicals Division is now Proliant Biologicals; and LG Laboratories is now Proliant Health.
• David S. Smith Packaging, United Kingdom, a global supplier of liquid packaging and dispense systems, has acquired Packaging Systems L.C., trading under the name of Rapak, with operations in Romeoville, Ill., and Union City, Calif. Rapak is a packaging and machinery-systems company with a tradition of bag-in-the-box innovation. The deal follows David S. Smith’s recent takeover of Formative Engineering, a U.S. company specializing in producing precision injection molded parts for liquid connectors.
• Tropicana Products, Inc., Bradenton, Fla., has qualified for the Voluntary Protection Program STAR rating conferred by the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). The STAR program is OSHA’s way of recognizing sites that have achieved the highest level of safety and excellence. Tropicana, one of only 20 companies in Florida to be so recognized, has achieved more than one million work hours without a “lost time” injury for the second year in a row.
• The Whole Herb Company, Sonoma, Calif., has formed a partnership with Tasman Extracts Limited, based in New Zealand, and been appointed the exclusive U.S. distributor of Tasman Extracts. For more information about this partnership, contact The Whole Herb Company at 707-935-1077; fax 707-935-3447; or Web site www.wholeherbcompany.com.