Weekly roundup: Brenntag expands North American R&D, Land O’Lakes develops on-farm digital platform

28 Sep 2018 --- In business news this week, Brenntag North America Inc. has announced the grand opening of a new Food & Nutrition Application & Development Center in Allentown, PA and Kraft Heinz Canada has completed the acquisition of the assets of Ethical Bean Coffee. As traceability efforts intensify, Land O’Lakes SUSTAIN has announced its plan to roll out the Truterra Insights Engine, an interactive on-farm digital platform that will help farmers advance their stewardship goals.

Business news
Brenntag North America Inc. has announced the grand opening of a new Food & Nutrition Application & Development Center in Allentown, PA. Through this center, further support will be provided to customers in the US and Canada who face food and nutrition formulation challenges with technical solutions and inventive ideas. The center will be fully equipped to handle new product development and ingredient application assistance in all areas within the food and nutrition industry. In the Food & Nutrition Application & Development Center, the Brenntag team will conduct ingredient qualification, food application testing, and prototype development focused on strategic products and applications. Food applications include baked goods, beverage, confectionery, formed meat, dairy and more. 

Danone Manifesto Ventures has become the first corporate venture fund to achieve B Corporation Certification independently. This prestigious designation follows a rigorous certification process by B Lab, a third-party non-profit, and recognizes companies that are committed to conducting business with the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability to balance profit and purpose. Certified B Corporations are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. Approximately 30 percent of Danone’s global business is now covered by B Corp certification, marking significant progress towards the company’s ambition to become one of the first certified multinationals.

Kraft Heinz Canada has completed the acquisition of the assets of Ethical Bean Coffee. Founded in 2003, Ethical Bean Coffee is a leading roaster of 100 percent fairtrade, certified organic coffee. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Ethical Bean is committed to social responsibility, global awareness and environmental accountability. Carlos Piani, President of Kraft Heinz Canada says: “Kraft Heinz Canada is continuously looking for ways to deliver superior quality, extensive variety, and finer products to Canadians. We believe quality coffee starts at the source, which involves responsible sourcing and supporting the hard-working dedicated farmers at origin. The acquisition of Ethical Bean Coffee reinforces our pledge to the sustainable health of our people, our planet and our Company.”

Sustainability & traceability
Land O’Lakes SUSTAIN has announced its plan to roll out the Truterra Insights Engine, an interactive on-farm digital platform that will help farmers advance their stewardship goals and return-on-investment in real time, acre-by-acre and help food companies measure sustainability progress. The platform will be available this year as the core tool under the new Truterra brand. The full suite of the Truterra offering aims to advance the agricultural industry’s ability to enable conservation at scale across a variety of crops, commodities and commitments. 

The Hershey Company has been named again to the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America Indices (DJSI). Hershey is one of only 13 companies from the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Industry in the World Index and one of six in the North America Index. This is the sixth consecutive year that Hershey has been included in the World Index and the seventh year for the North American Index. Hershey was evaluated among the 2,500 largest companies tracked in the S&P Global Broad Market Index. Hershey’s DJSI ranking puts the company’s sustainability performance among the top in the world.

Givaudan has joined the consortium of 16 partners participating in HyCool, an innovative energy technology project funded by the European Union whose aim is to develop cost-effective solutions using solar heat for industrial purposes. At full scale, it is anticipated that HyCool technology will generate a 25 percent electricity reduction for refrigeration and a 6 percent natural gas reduction, driving a total carbon footprint reduction of 7 percent. The project partners have begun work on the concept design which is expected to be complete by the end of the year; installation and test campaigns will begin in the first half of 2019. The three-year project is supported by a European Union grant of €5.8 million. HyCool aims to double the use of solar cooling installations worldwide within five years of project completion.

Nestlé has again been recognized as one of the most engaged companies in the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative. Announced at UN Headquarters in New York at the start of the UN General Assembly week, Nestlé was reconfirmed as a Global Compact LEAD company. Nestlé has demonstrated its commitment to the UN Global Compact by sharing best practices and providing leadership in activities that support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Each year Nestlé reports on its progress towards the UN Global Compact ten principles. 

In a separate announcement, Nestlé pledged to help accelerate the pace towards equal pay for equal work, at an event in the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York. The event was organized by the Equal Pay International Coalition, led by the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Women, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The main objective is to build a consortium of committed partners to accelerate the pace in closing the gender pay gap and achieving equal pay, in line with target 8.5 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Appointments and milestones
Louis Dreyfus Company Holdings B.V. (LDCH) has announced the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer, Ian McIntosh, who is promoted from his current position of Chief Strategy Officer, effective immediately. The move follows the resignation of Gonzalo Ramírez Martiarena as Chief Executive Officer, after 13 years with the company, in order to pursue other opportunities. “I take the opportunity to thank Gonzalo for his contribution to the company, in particular as CEO,” says Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of LDCH. “Over that three-year cycle, he has successfully fulfilled his mandate of putting the Group in its current solid financial position and creating the conditions for the company’s next phase of growth. After this phase of consolidation, the new team is well positioned to drive future expansion.”

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Ornua, the largest exporter of Irish dairy products, has appointed Iarlaith Smyth to President, Ornua Foods North & Latin America. As President Smyth will lead the continued growth and development of Ornua’s branded portfolio of premium grass-fed Irish dairy products, which includes both Kerrygold and Dubliner, in the region. Smyth joined Ornua Foods North America in 2011 as National Sales Manager. In 2013, he was promoted to Vice-President, with responsibility for growing the distribution of the Kerrygold brand nationwide which through 2017, continued to deliver double-digit sales growth in the North American market. Prior to joining Ornua, Iarlaith held senior positions with Johnson Brothers and Danone Baby Nutrition in Ireland.

Food allergen specialist, global industry figure and inspiring mentor, Simon Flanagan took the top spot in the prestigious Scientist of the Year category at this year’s Food & Drink Federation awards ceremony in the UK. With a long-standing career specializing in allergen risk assessment and management, Simon Flanagan – head of food safety and quality at Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL) – successfully demonstrated his exceptional contribution to food and drink science. Commenting on his win, Flanagan said: “It is an honor to receive this award - particularly in view of the strong competition in this field. Food allergens is one of the most important issues facing the food industry today, so it is vitally important that we, as scientists, continue to work with manufacturers to establish robust management systems and policies.” 

ADM has announced that Camille Batiste, Vice President of Global Procurement, and Alix Dowling, Vice President of Global Tax, were recognized by Profiles in Diversity Journal as winners of the 17th Annual Women Worth Watching Award. “ADM is committed to a diverse workforce because it helps drive our business forward. We do a better job identifying opportunities, solving problems and executing our strategy when we have colleagues with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives around the conference table, or on the plant floor,” said Michael D’Ambrose, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at ADM. “Both Camille and Alix have done a tremendous job leading their teams and respective business functions, and we greatly appreciate and value the expertise and unique perspectives they bring to our leadership team.” The full list of executives can be found here.

Toni Rannikko has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and a member of Executive Committee of Raisio plc, starting from the beginning of January, 2019. Rannikko will transfer to Raisio from his current position as Vice President, Finance, in the Kalmar Mobile Equipment division of Cargotec plc. Rannikko has worked in various positions at Cargotec since 2010 and previously at Nokia and Nordea. In addition to extensive expertise in financial administration, he has gained a broad experience in corporate strategy, M&A and international business operations.

Edited by Robin Wyers

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