Kraft seeks next generation of Vegemite eaters

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May 10, 2012 News for the food, beverage and consumer packaged goods industry   Company Watch    Indian spice brands are acquired by General Mills General Mills acquired Parampara Food Products' spice and sauce brands, which are made in Pune, India, and sold mainly in western India but also exported to Japan, Canada and the U.S. The purchase "strengthens our ability to help bring home-cooked meals to the family table and positions General Mills India for continued growth," said Vijay Sood, executive director of General Mills India. Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.) (5/9)      Kraft seeks next generation of Vegemite eaters Kraft acquired Vegemite in 1926, and the company is trying to reverse flat sales of the pungent yeast extract in Australia, where it is a cultural touchstone but not particularly beloved for its taste. It introduced a milder spread called My First Vegemite for infants, but pulled it after an unsuccessful year. The Wall Street Journal (5/9)      Other News Wholly Salsa adds eight varieties Food Business Review (5/9)        Trends    Analyst sees continued growth for Whole Foods Colin Guheen of Cowen & Co. was recognized by The Wall Street Journal as a top analyst for food and drug retail, largely for championing Whole Foods Market when others said people would turn away from its expensive products. Guheen said Whole Foods, with a 38% return in 2011, is poised for even more growth, as people become more interested in sustainable and healthy food. The Wall Street Journal (5/10)      There's a bigger story on HFCS. Read all about it. Changes are happening now with sweeteners. Get the whole story on HFCS with The Changing Ingredient Game, the business case on HFCS. See what scientific experts have to say. Find out what consumers really think. Get the facts on HFCS. Download the white paper: CornNaturally.com/BizCase/WholeStory   Supply Chain Management    Electronic tracking of produce makes headway The Produce Traceability Initiative's 228 companies are making progress toward electronic traceability throughout the supply chain by year-end, a survey found. Among respondents, 88% said they are receiving cases of produce with a Global Trade Item Number, and 77% said they have assigned a number to some or all produce. Progressive Grocer (5/8)      Learn How to Cut HR Costs Without Cutting Production Entrepreneurial execs know that they need to follow the rules, but they may not realize which decisions will lead to the two vital components that help keep HR costs low. The following paper focuses on minimizing human capital expenses in four key areas. Download the white paper, An Executive’s Guide to Cutting HR Costs to learn more.   Advertising & Marketing  Millions of Polar Bowl fans joined Coke's holiday game Coca-Cola's Polar Bowl holiday promotion through Wieden+Kennedy drew 9 million consumers, many of them watching TV while playing the game, said Jennifer Healan, the client's group director of integrated marketing content. Engagement was wildly underestimated at 2.5 minutes per user, when players actually averaged 28 minutes per use. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (5/9)      Odwalla campaign focuses on goodness Odwalla launched a campaign with the theme "Goodness grows here." The effort, aimed at consumers ages 18 to 34, includes digital and traditional media, as well as a Facebook page highlighting good deeds. Also, a "Mission Goodness" e-mail campaign shows what Odwalla is doing to foster goodness and encourages recipients to do good work. MediaPost Communications/Marketing Daily (5/9)      Other News Duracell to unveil exclusive song for Team USA Drug Store News (5/9)      See how Cardmembers use American Express OPEN Cards to help run their business: “American Express customer service is phenomenal. There's always someone at the end of the line, whether it's evenings, weekends, or holidays.” - Eli Wilner, Eli Wilner & Company With the Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN, you can enjoy over 30 premium benefits to help power your business. Including, 24/7 customer service. LEARN MORE & APPLY   Retail Spotlight    A&P ad gives starring role to CEO Martin A television ad campaign for A&P puts President and CEO Sam Martin in front of the camera as pitchman for the chain, which moved from bankruptcy protection to private ownership in March. In the ad, Martin says, "If you haven't been in our stores for a while, we welcome you back." The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) (5/9)      On the Internet, page-loading delays can stop customers from buying. Download our free report 3 Proven Ways to Boost Transactions with Web Acceleration and learn how Limelight Network's front-end acceleration technology can improve Time to Actions.   Sponsored Content    Would You Fire Someone Over a Past Crime? Courtney Rubin A Guide to Motivating Employees Katie Morell How to Pitch Investors So They Bite DAVID LAVINSKY Stitch Fix Delivers Fashion with a Pandora-Like Programming Donna Fenn   Health & Wellness  Access to healthy food is only part of the solution, Obama adviser says Sam Kass, Obama's healthy-food adviser, spoke out against a recent report that suggested the obesity problem could be solved by placing supermarkets within food deserts, areas of the country where people cannot easily locate nutritious food. Kass says that in addition to adding more supermarkets, the U.S. needs to increase nutrition education, promote physical exercise and work on nutrition and lifestyle issues from early childhood. TheRoot.com (5/8)        GMA News  Do you have all the answers to create a food safety training plan? Did you know FDA will be mandating food safety training as part of the pending Food Safety Modernization Act regulations? Understanding the science and regulations can be easy -- knowing how to transfer that knowledge to the production floor is not. On June 7 from 1-2:30 p.m. (EDT) GMA will host the Training Tips for Food Industry Manufacturing Professionals webinar designed to help you gain the tools to plan and implement an effective food safety training plan. Get the answers to all of your questions, such as: Who needs to be trained? What is the most effective approach for training my workforce? Do I build a program or buy one off the shelf? How do I measure training effectiveness? The answers will be as different and unique as the food industry itself. Get more information or register now.      Learn more about GMA -> About GMA  |  Issues and Policy  |  Newsroom  |  Events  |  Research and Tools   Government & Food Safety  Petition criticizes FDA nanotechnology plan A petition signed by Friends of the Earth, the Center for Food Safety and other groups criticizes as "marginal progress" the FDA's draft proposal calling for voluntary regulation of food-maker use of nanotechnology. The group believes the rules should be mandatory, and said in the petition, "nanomaterials in sunscreens, cosmetics, foods and food contact substances are unlabelled and largely untested for their human health effects." FoodNavigator (5/9)      Position Title Company Name Location QA Specialist The Hershey Company US - PA - Hershey Associate Director, Micro Food Safety Kraft Foods US - IL - Glenview Click here to view more job listings.   SmartQuote  If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are wrong." --Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, poet and essayist          This SmartBrief was created for cpgbrokers@gmail.com   Subscriber Tools       Update account information | Change e-mail address | Unsubscribe | Print friendly format | Web version | Search past news | Archive | Privacy policy Advertise Publisher, Food & Beverage:  Chris Warne 212-450-7970 Download Media Kit Job Board:  Jackie Basso (202) 407-7871   Read more at SmartBrief.com A powerful website for SmartBrief readers including: Industry Home Readers' Choice Search Archive Who's Hiring? Grab our News Widget Get this RSS Feed Publish your Press Release Download a SmartBrief Mobile app today       Recent GMA SmartBrief Issues: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 Tuesday, May 08, 2012 Monday, May 07, 2012 Friday, May 04, 2012 Thursday, May 03, 2012     Lead Editor:  Patricia Smith       Mailing Address: SmartBrief, Inc.®, 555 11th ST NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004     © 1999-2012 SmartBrief, Inc.® Legal Information

Despite logistical challenges, the Great White North beckons -- STORES Weekly

Vol. 3, No. 19 May 10, 2012 follow STORES Media on    upcoming webinars How Chick-fil-A serves up customer satisfaction with Wi-Fi -- Sponsored by Aerohive When Chick-fil-A needed to upgrade its wireless networking infrastructure with fast, reliable Wi-Fi coverage to support drive-thru lanes for POS and back office network access across 100 of its stores, they went in search of a new WLAN vendor to fulfill all their requirements. Join us to hear their experience searching for the right Wi-Fi vendor for their stores and how they lowered their TCO and increased customer satisfaction by deploying Wi-Fi. Thursday, May 17 at 2 p.m. Eastern Oh, Canada Despite logistical challenges, the Great White North beckons Canada weathered the global economic downturn stronger than most, and per capita retail spending surpassed that of the U.S. last year. It’s no wonder, then, that many U.S. retailers are looking to our neighbors to the north. Beyond Limits Plus-size line meets a passion for fashion at The Limited When The Limited wanted to launch a new plus-size line, it went beyond just talking to customers. And part of the year-long process into understanding this significant market — encompassing 50 percent of American women — was throwing out pre-conceived notions. What a Night Windsor Fashions keeps prom dreams alive with SaaS Windsor Fashion understands the importance of finding the right prom dress. The Vernon, Calif.-based retailer uses a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for insight into trends, customer preferences and demand. Williams-Sonoma’s Agrarian Movement -- Williams-Sonoma’s new Agrarian line includes products such as beekeeping supplies, DIY cheese-making kits and chicken coops. May Tech Toy: POP Phone -- Thanks to Native Union, you can now find a series of headsets and desktop plug-in devices that turn a mobile phone into a traditional phone through both wired and wireless options. Shoe Dating – or Pump Pimping? -- Malaysian retailer Shoes Shoes Shoes launched a promotion earlier this year that throws in a “free man” with every purchase. Alliance Data Systems has appointed Rick Ainsworth as vice president of strategic innovation for its private label credit business. New England-based grocery chain Hannaford Bros. has enhanced its workforce management suite of solutions from Kronos Incorporated to include the Kronos labor analytics solution to gain real-time visibility into store performance across the entire enterprise and the Kronos next generation user interface to enhance end-user adoption and reduce training efforts. Women's fashion retailer Aritzia has selected the RedPrairie Warehouse Management, Workforce Management, Web Visibility, Slotting and Parcel solutions for its Vancouver distribution center in order to increase supply chain efficiencies, better manage inventory and enhance order visibility and tracking.  view all whitepapers available for download Business and Strategy Optimizing Price in a Transparent World — sponsored by SAS Organizations that accept, capture, store, transmit or process a high volume of credit card and debit card data are required to complete annual onsite PCI DSS compliance assessments whose costs range from $225,000 - $500,000 depending on the number of systems in PCI scope. Available in multiple form factors and supported by world-class Intel engineering, Intel® Tokenization Broker reduces PCI scope, lowers assessment costs, and is the only product in the market to support Tokenization Proxy and Security Gateway on a single platform. Business and Strategy The 2012 Omni-Channel Retail Experience — sponsored by Epicor Banish customer frustration… using channel integration! Aberdeen’s 2012 Analyst Insight on Omni-Channel Retailing shows you how! This report details best practices from 80 retailers on breaking down silos in-store and enterprise-wide to ensure product availability, optimize the customer experience, and integrate workflows, to maximize profit. This $399 value is yours free. Download now! Information Technology Wireless Printing — sponsored by Zebra Wireless bar code and radio frequency identification (RFID) label printing is widely recognized by major retailers globally as an essential technology for enhancing store operations. The ability to print real-time information in the aisle, on demand, saves time, effort, and money—creating competitive advantages. Information Technology Retailers Gain Simple, Budget-Friendly WLAN Options — sponsored by Aerohive Retailing companies often must support geographically dispersed sites on a shoestring IT budget. The wireless LANs in these sites are often small, but they nevertheless need business-class capabilities, such as advanced security protection and centralized management, which often add cost. New WLAN architectures and deployment models, however, have emerged to offer more options to help retailers get what they need while sticking to their budgets. Merchandising Twenty First Century Merchandising Takes Hold — sponsored by SAS The latest research report from Retail Systems Research (RSR) re-examines the seven tenets of 21st century merchandising and reveals why and how the current retail winners are winning. It also provides seven bootstrap recommendations on how you can integrate these tenets into your business model, so you can join the ranks of the retail winners. Merchandising Consignment Sales: Market Penetration VS Risk Mitigation — sponsored by Jesta I.S. As retailers react to changes in demand and manufacturers compete for limited shelf space, more and more retailers are asking their vendors to sell goods on a consignment basis. Brand manufacturers must closely examine the risks and rewards associated with selling on consignment.. Supply Chain The Retailer's Challenge — sponsored by GT Nexus Responding Effectively to Seasonal Demand In a Global Sourcing Environment This white paper explores the challenges and solutions associated with creating a nimble, demand

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