Food giant Unilever saw net profits grow 10% to €2.235bn in the first half of 2011, with its brand equity allowing it to weather severe raw materials price hikes in some cases.
Allegations of financial impropriety against China-Biotics are growing louder with respected investment publications coming down against the company for massaging its financial figures to overstate revenues.
Swiss firm Nestle ranks second in terms of innovation targeted at Asia's emerging markets, claims a fresh 'business vitality' index from the Global Intelligence Alliance Group (GIA).
The high cost of inputs that has dogged the food industry in recent times looks to have helped raise the profile of enzymes as cheaper alternatives to other ingredients, according to Novozymes’ annual report.
The functional foods industry in France is booming, according to a
report from Invest In France that claims the sector attracted 7 per
cent of all new foreign investment projects in the country between
2002 and 2007.
Tate & Lyle Ventures and Scottish Enterprise hope to prosper
from the emerging market for dissolvable and edible films as a
delivery mechanism for active ingredients, with the acquisition of
BioFilm Limited.
Fortitech has announced significant new capital investments in
several of its key markets, as it reaches out to growing markets
with its custom nutrient premix services.
Finnish food group Raisio has downgrades its expectations for
full-year 2006 as it grapples with the weak performance by its
Finnish, Swedish and Russian food business and diagnostics, and
carries the costs of restructuring.
Standard Process has begun a multimillion-dollar expansion to deal
with projected growth, as plans to add new lines and extend
existing ones suggest the company's business model is working.
Swiss chemicals group Lonza has announced a strategic investment of
$200m in its operations in China, with the investment boosting all
the business including its rapidly expanding nutrition business
portfolio.
Swiss drug firm Novartis will finally sell the remainder of its
health food brands in a €220 million deal with ABN AMRO's French
equity unit, it revealed today.
The European Commission gives the all clear for private equity firm
PAI to buy the food ingredients arm of Danish firm Chr Hansen,
writes Lindsey Partos.
German plant extracts group Martin Bauer has invested more than €1
million in new technology for its research centre PhytoLab and
built a new 1600 square metre laboratory building as part of the
expansion, writes Dominique Patton.
German group Cognis, the supplier of plant sterols and CLA, is
considering the issue of a €500 million bond to fund a dividend
payment to its private equity owners, it said last week.
Management at the Royal Schouten group, parent of soy ingredients
business Acatris, has increased its share in the company under a
new shareholder structure designed to allow it to move more easily
on strategic developments, such...
UK company BioProgress, which makes cellulose-based films for
coating tablets and capsules, is making an acquisition in the US
that gives it access to dissolving 'in the mouth' films for retail
consumer products, such as...
German speciality chemicals company Degussa has founded a holding
company in Beijing - Degussa (China) Holding - to expand the
group's activities in the Chinese region. The group also announced
recently that it has completed...
An upbeat Numico yesterday lifted its outlook for the year after
showing good growth in its core baby food and clinical nutrition
units in the third quarter and first nine months, and even a sales
increase at the recently divested...
Numico is to sell the last of its supplement activities in two
major deals announced today. Vitamex goes to Swedish firm Wilhelm
Sonesson for €31 million, while an investor group is buying US
retailer GNC for $750 million.
Swiss chemicals company the Lonza Group said today it topped the
previous year's performance, with operating income, excluding
non-recurring items, up from CHF413 million to CHF419 million
(€286.5m). The group confirmed its targets...
French chemicals company Rhodia is to sell its UK-based brewing and
enzymes businesses to US biotech company Genencor International in
a bid to strengthen its focus on food additives.
US investment company Fremont Partners has bought Nellson
Nutraceutical, the California-based maker of functional bars and
powders, from Artal Luxembourg. The company did not specify the sum
paid for the acquisition.
Exceptional costs relating to a delay in the completion of new
production facilities pushed Galaxy Nutritional Foods into the red
in fiscal 2002, but a turnaround is expected this year.
Nutraceutix, an early stage biopharmaceutical company, has engaged
investor relations and strategic planning company Bibicoff &
Associates to increase investment community awareness of the
company.