Industry News 2009-01-01

Mike Buzalka

Nestle

Nestle Opens Innovation Campus

Nestle Professional celebrated the grand opening recently of its 67,000-sq.ft. Professional Customer Innovation Campus in Solon, OH. Designed exclusively for foodservice customers, the campus is both a resource for foodservice associations and a training facility for employees.

A major feature of the Innovation Campus is that it is fully reconfigurable to replicate customers' kitchen environments and menus. Customers who visit are taken through a proprietary creative and menu development process that is based on their individual needs and includes menu analysis, branded product solutions, product concepts and recipes.

In remarks to the visiting press during the grand opening, Nestle executives spoke to the important role the center will play in developing products for both the U.S. and international markets and in developing customized applications of those products for major accounts.

Sara Lee Sells Coffee Unit

CAT’S UPSIDE. As part of its effort to kick off its new UpSides side dish line, Simplot hosted a cooking demonstration with Iron Chef Cat Cora (<i>Cooking From the Hip</i>) on November 20 at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. Cora showed how the line can be used to create ethnically inspired dishes such as the Shrimp, Caper & Orzo Toscano Salad With Sweet Corn and Cherry Tomatoes shown here.

Sara Lee Corp. has announced a definitive agreement to sell its U.S. Direct Store Delivery Foodservice coffee business to Farmer Bros. Co. The $45 million sale involves only the business that delivers coffee directly to sites. Sara Lee will retain the portion delivered through third parties.

As part of the transaction, the Superior Coffee, Cain's, Ireland, Justin Lloyd, McGarvey, Metropolitan, Prebica, Suntipt (U.S. only), Wechsler, Cafe Royal and Royal Kona brands will be sold to Farmer Bros., which will license these brands back to Sara Lee for a transition period. Also, for the next three years Farmer Bros. and Sara Lee have entered into reciprocal co-pack arrangements for the supply of certain coffee and tea products.

“We are pleased to announce the sale of our Foodservice DSD coffee business, which is consistent with our commitment to simplifying our business to focus on areas where we have a clear, sustainable point of difference and can leverage our scale,” says Sara Lee North America COO CJ Fraleigh.

The direct-delivery coffee business had nearly $230 million in revenue during Sara Lee's last fiscal year, less than 2 percent of its annual sales.

Bartelt Promoted at Vollrath

The Vollrath Company has appointed Paul Bartelt to the newly created role of COO. He will also succeed current President/CEO Tom Belot when he retires at the end of 2009. Most recently, Bartelt was president of the engines business with the Kohler Co.

Campbell Names New FS Head

Campbell Soup Co. has named Irene Chang Britt president of its North America Foodservice unit, replacing Sean Connolly, who has been promoted to president of Campbell USA.

Connolly, who will now be responsible for Campbell's $2.7 billion soup, sauce and beverage business in the U.S., joined the company in 2002.

Britt joined Campbell in 2005 as vice president/general manager of its sauces and beverages units, the positions she held until this latest promotion.

Wallace to Head Awrey Bakeries

Awrey Bakeries has appointed Robert Wallace president/CEO. He has held senior executive positions with Bridor, Inc., BakeMark Ingredients, Bunge Foods Bakery and International Multifoods North American Bakery Division.

THE GREENING OF SANTA CRUZ. Fellows from the Hobart Center for Foodservice Sustainability presented a ,000 grant to University of California- Santa Cruz at a ceremony held during the Greenbuild Conference in Boston on November 19. Shown above: Jamie Smith (center), chef de cuisine of UC-Santa Cruz, who accepted the award, flanked by (l. to r.) Michael Berning, director of sustainable design, Heapy Engineering; John Turenne, founder of Sustainable Food Systems; Rick Cartwright, VP/general manager of ITW Food Equipment Group Retail Systems; and Richard Young, director of education for the Food Service Technology Center.

Haddad Succeeds at Schreiber

Schreiber Foods has named Mike Haddad president/CEO effective December 31, when David Pozniak retires. Haddad joined Schreiber in 1995 as a business sales manager and rose to become vice president in 2004, senior vice president in 2005 and finally president/COO in 2006. Dairy products supplier Schreiber has annual sales of around $4 billion.

Hormel Execs Swap Positions

The president of Jennie-O Turkey Store and the group vice president of the Hormel Foods specialty foods group have swapped positions.

Mike Tolbert, who has headed Jennie-O since 2004, has taken over as the group vice president of the specialty foods group. He was succeeded by Bob Tegt, who had been group vice president of the specialty foods group since November 2007. He had previously been with Jennie-O since 1988, when he was named vice president of marketing.