Weekly Roundup: KIND acquires Nature’s Bakery, International Year of Plant Health extends to first half of 2021

04 Dec 2020 --- This week in industry news, KIND revealed it will acquire Nature’s Bakery and FrieslandCampina Germany announced plans to accelerate its sustainability goals within its “Our Purpose, Our Plan” initiative. Meanwhile, the UN’s International Year of Plant Health has been extended beyond the first half of 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In brief: Business moves
KIND, a healthy snacking brand, has agreed to acquire Nature’s Bakery, a family-owned company that offers wholesome and delicious snacks, such as its Fig Bars and other soft-baked foods. The partnership will extend Mars’ portfolio of businesses in the health and wellness space and build on KIND and Mars’ shared vision to create a platform of brands and products that make wholesome snacking choices more readily available to people everywhere.

Unilever has completed the unification of its group legal structure under a single parent company, Unilever PLC. This week, and for the first time in its history, Unilever now trades with one market capitalization, while also maintaining the group’s listings on the Amsterdam, London and New York stock exchanges. Nils Andersen, Chairman of Unilever, says: “Our Unification proposals give us greater flexibility for strategic portfolio change, remove complexity and further improve governance.”

Click to EnlargeScentium has opened a production center in Tunis, Tunisia.FrieslandCampina Germany is accelerating its transformation that was launched two years ago, focusing on its strong brands and scaling back the production of unprofitable products. As a result, cost savings are planned, which will affect approximately 195 employees at the production sites in Heilbronn and Cologne. At the same time, the company will also invest in these dairy plants. Recently FrieslandCampina has evaluated its global “Our Purpose, Our Plan” strategy initiated in 2018. On November 10, the company announced that its current system has only grown in relevance but that its implementation needs acceleration and strong execution, intensifying the focus on growth categories while structurally reducing costs. 

Scentium, the flavor division of the Iberchem Group, has opened a production center in Tunis, Tunisia. The new subsidiary, located next to its existing fragrance facility, covers nearly 700 square meters. It comprises a production plant, two warehouses (one being for the exclusive storage of inflammable products), extensive laboratory installations and administration offices. The whole complex complies with the industry's strictest food safety measures, in concordance with the standards of the FSSC 22000 certification. 

In brief: Appointments
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has appointed the popular British gardening expert, writer and broadcaster, Monty Don, as a Goodwill Ambassador to promote the International Year of Plant Health. In addition, the organization has appointed the Irish garden designer, writer and broadcaster, Diarmuid Gavin, as an official Champion of the cause. The UN’s General Assembly declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment and boost economic development. Due to COVID-19, the Year has been extended beyond the first half of 2021.

Roquette has appointed Pierre Courduroux as its new CEO, effective December 14. Courduroux is currently the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Roquette, a position he took in October 2020. He has international experience and was most recently the CFO of Monsanto. 

In brief: Other highlightsClick to EnlargeThe UN’s General Assembly declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health.
Challenges and opportunities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic are reacting in real-time to consumers’ needs in the food sector. To facilitate a fresh, reliable supply of seafood in the US marketplace, KnowSeafood announced its implementation of Producers Market’s powerful transparency application, StoryBird, powered by VeChain ToolChain. Through the Storybird application, KnowSeafood customers will be able to trace their sustainably harvested seafood transparently from catch to plate. As the COVID-19 pandemic is closing or limiting restaurants in the US, consumers’ behaviors shifted to their kitchen, bringing seafood to the status of fastest-growing supermarket category during the last week of May. Meanwhile, supermarket sales continued to surge through July, which brought increasing demand on reliably sourced seafood. To combat seafood fraud and supply chain shakeups, KnowSeafood chose VeChain ToolChain to enhance its strategy of directly connecting farmers with consumers using blockchain technology.

Meat-Tech 3D has succeeded for the first time in printing a cultured beef fat structure composed of bovine fat cells and bio-ink, which were grown and developed from stem cells in the company’s laboratories. The printing of beef fat and the bio-ink created an edible structure that reached a height of 10 mm. This represents a step forward for Meat-Tech’s technology, following its previous milestone of 3D printing a uniform, thin tissue of meat-derived from stem cells. Meat-Tech is an international company developing technologies to produce cultured meat products. The company is developing technologies for the next generation of cultured meat food products by leveraging 3D digital printing technology. 

By Elizabeth Green

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