The Brazilian investment company 3G Capital (http://www.3g-capital.com/), which owns the brewer Budweiser and Burger King, has just taken over Heinz and Kraft, in combination with legendary investor Warren Buffett. A speciality of 3G is ripping out costs and overhauling the corporate structure. At Heinz, taken over in 2013, only one of 12 senior executives survived. Kraft was taken over in March 2015. Significant synergies are being planned. An AFR article on 27 March suggested that Kraft has sluggish sales due to a growing consumer preference for more natural, healthy foods, ie not those currently made by Kraft. The AFR suggested that Kelloggs and Campbells were worth watching.
The fresh fruit and vegetable supply companies Costa (http://costaexchange.com.au/), which owns the 40 ha tomato glasshouse complex at Guyra, NSW, and Premier Fruits (http://premierfruits.com.au/) are both looking for new capital to expand. IPO both. Exports to Asia are on the agenda. The Costa group is one of the few Australian agribusinesses to own farm operations off-shore, with a stake in blueberry operations in Morocco and China.
A series of four articles in The Weekend Australian of 20-21 June spoke of competition with Aldi, and now Lidl, suggesting that service may be better than endless price wars and how Woolworths had become a big bureaucracy and may be a takeover target.
What does all this mean? Certainly, that the world, and thus Australian, food sector is going to experience on-going change.
Where is your company looking to be in the future? If unsure, contact Innovation Optimisers, http://innovationoptimisers.com/.
Thinking of taxis, Uber offers a taxi-like service from people who own a car and have spare time. Sounds a bit fringe? Well, Uber operates in 250 cities in 50 countries and has a market capitalisation of $40 BILLION. It’s anyone’s guess what will happen to taxi licences, which used to be worth approx $500 000. Is your company out there, or are your products traditional?