Tyson Foods, a Meat Leader, Invests in Protein Alternatives

Tyson Foods appears to be the first big meat company to invest in a business that, among other things, aims to reduce consumption of chicken, beef and pork by replacing it with plant proteins.

Tyson, the country’s largest meat processor, announced last week that it was investing an undisclosed amount for a 5 percent stake in Beyond Meat, a company based in El Segundo, Calif., that makes “meats” from protein sources like soy and peas.

Beyond Meat this year began selling the Beyond Burger, for instance, a plant-protein burger sold fresh that sizzles and oozes fats while cooking on a griddle.

Whole Foods Market apparently finds it close enough to the real thing that the supermarket chain has been selling Beyond Burger next to the meat case in its stores.

“The quality of the Beyond Burger is amazing,” said Monica McGurk, a former Coca-Cola executive who joined Tyson in spring as senior vice president in charge of strategy and new ventures. “We think it’s a game-changing product that gives us exposure to this fast-growing part of the food business.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The financing round includes other investors like the Humane Society of the United States, which also previously invested in Beyond Meat.

Americans are eating more plant-based foods, leaving conventional food companies scrambling to catch up. The Plant Based Foods Association said businesses in the United States, which include Beyond Meat, Califia Farms and Heidi Ho, rang up $4.9 billion in sales for the 12 months through June, and grew faster than the food business over all.

The venture capital arm of General Mills, 301 Inc., also has invested in Beyond Meat, as well as in Kite Hill, which uses nuts and other plant proteins to replace dairy products in cheese and other dairy items.

Michele Simon, executive director of the Plant Based Foods Association, said Tyson’s investment was the first she knew of in which a big traditional meat producer took a stake in a plant-based company.

In 2014, Pinnacle Foods, which owns the Armour canned meats brand, bought the maker of the Gardein line of plant-based meat substitutes. Armour, however, is a modest part of Pinnacle’s business, which includes the Duncan Hines and Birds Eye brands.

“The question in my mind with these acquisitions is always why they’re being done,” Ms. Simon said. “The most positive view is that this means the meat industry is shifting away from animal meat to plant-based meat, but I don’t think we know that’s the case yet — it could also be a way of distracting attention from their industrial meat business.”

Ethan Brown, the founder and chief executive of Beyond Meat, said he knew the investment would raise eyebrows, particularly among the most ardent vegans and vegetarians.

“I’m hoping, though, that they and others will see this as part of a deliberate course of action to get out of the penalty box that’s the ‘alternative’ section in the supermarket and get into a mainstream discussion with the consumer,” Mr. Brown said.

Research conducted jointly last year by the NPD Group, Midan Marketing and Meatingplace, an industry publication, found that 70 percent of meat eaters said they used a meat substitute in place of meat protein at least once a week. And 22 percent said they were using such substitutes more frequently than a year earlier.

Beyond Meat raised $17 million last year from investors. That was the third round of financing that CB Insights, a data collection and research firm, could pinpoint, and the only one for which a dollar amount was disclosed.

Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/business/tyson-foods-a-meat-leader-invests-in-protein-alternatives.html?_r=0

Most of the food and snack products, marketed as meat substitutes are either frozen, refrigerated or shelf-stable. Products offered by leading meat substitute companies such as Amys Kitchen, Beyond Meat and others, primarily belong to frozen category. However, shelf stable category would exhibit the fastest growth in the coming years.

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Heineken hikes beer sales but sees bigger currency hit

Heineken, now the world's second-largest beer maker, sold more beer than expected in the third quarter and retained its full-year profit margin forecast, although said the impact of currencies would be worse than previously thought.

The maker of Europe's top-selling lager Heineken, Tiger and Sol said it sold 2 percent more beer on a consolidated basis than a year earlier, with strong growth in Mexico and Asia, notably Vietnam, but lower volumes in Russia, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Heineken also fared well in most European markets, due to favorably beer-drinking weather.

Heineken has now become the world's number two brewer, although the gap between it global leader AB InBev has widened after the latter's takeover of SABMiller earlier this month.

"Performance in the third quarter was robust despite strong comparatives in Americas and Europe, and a tough environment in Africa Middle East & Eastern Europe," Chief Executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said in a statement.

Overall beer volumes were 54 million hectolitres, higher than the average expectation in a Reuters poll of 53.1 million.

The company said it still expected its operating margin would expand by about 40 basis points over the year, slowing down following a 124 point expansion in the first half.

It did not give its margin for the third quarter.

However, it forecast an even heavier currency translation impact, now at 215 million euros at operating profit and 115 million euros at net profit level, from 200 million and 110 million euros seen before.

Source:http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/26/heineken-hikes-beer-sales-but-sees-bigger-currency-hit.html

Plant-based alternative milk consumption growing in Australia as dairy industry holds firm

Dairy milk has been flying off the supermarket shelves as consumers continue to sympathise with Australia's dairy farmers, following the Murray Goulburn crisis.

But so-called "alternative milks" are rising in popularity, and new research shows consumers are increasingly lapping them up.

Supermarkets now stock a range of plant-based milks, including soy, almond, coconut, hazelnut, rice, oat and more recently, macadamia milk.

Explore about Dairy Alternative Industry at: https://goo.gl/z360pP

"While the incidences of lactose intolerance have been increasing there have also been food trends that recommend avoiding cow's milk," IBISWorld analyst Lauren Magner said.

Ms Magner has been investigating the rise of the alternative milk market — focusing on soy and almond milk — and estimated the industry to be worth about $150 million.

"This figure has been growing quite quickly over the past five years as the popularity of alternative milks has grown, and we have expected 6 per cent per annum growth over the past five years," she said.

Milk consumption in Australia is higher than most Western nations, with figures from Dairy Australia showing the average Australian consumes 105 litres of fresh milk per year.

Blake Robinson, a dietician and analyst for Dairy Australia, said he disagreed that plant-based milks were rapidly rising in popularity.

"There has been a really small increase in that non-dairy industry over the last few years," he said.

"Looking at the extensive range of plant-based milk in the supermarket you could be forgiven for thinking [it's growing in popularity], but the data shows that very few Australians are drinking those alternatives instead of cow's milk.

"Statistics from the Australian Health Survey show that around seven-in-10 are having cow's milk, with only three percent having those alternatives."

Landline asked supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles how much alternative milk they sell compared to cow's milk, but they would not say for "commercial" reasons.

US shifts away from dairy milk

In the United States consumers are turning away from traditional dairy in droves, leading the push towards plant-based milks.

In a recent study, global market analyst Mintel found sales of alternative milks in the US rose by 9 per cent last year alone.

It also found dairy milk sales decreased by 7 per cent last year, costing the US industry $17.8 billion.

United States' milk sales were projected to drop another 11 per cent through to 2020, due to greater competition from sugary drinks, juice and plant-based milk.

But Mr Robinson said that was not the case in Australia.

He said non-dairy milk sales made up 6 per cent of all milks sold in supermarkets, only up half-a-per cent in three years.

"There's been a really small increase in that non-dairy industry over the last few years, but what we see is consumers tend to move within the category, for an example from a soy beverage to an almond beverage, rather than a big shift from cows' milk," he said.

Despite disagreeing on the extent to which nut milks are rising in popularity, Ms Magner and Mr Robinson agreed the traditional dairy industry in Australia was not at risk.

"The dairy industry still has a significant market in Australia, so per capita of cow's milk consumption is still 20 times more than soy," Ms Magner said.

"So IBISWorld doesn't think the dairy industry will suffer from large declines in market share to the milk alternatives industry for the short-to-medium term because most Australians still drink traditional milk."

Is plant-based milk better?

Melbourne's coffee scene is buzzing with cafes that only sell coffees made from plant-based milks.

"At the moment we are using coconut, almond and soy milk as our base milks, we don't use any cow's milk here," Zoe Davies, a barista at Macha Mylkbar in St Kilda, said.

"I think people are more and more leaning towards plant-based milks just because of the ethical and health issues that have been raised recently with the consumption of dairy.

"Plant-based milks are a lot lower in certain fats and I think people are leading more towards a plant-based lifestyle in general."

But Tim McMaster, a dietitian with the Dietitians' Association of Australia, said consumers need to be wary of plant-based milks being promoted as "healthier".

"It's not a straight answer," he said.

"Cow's milk probably comes out on top for nutrient quality, it has 10 essential nutrients that are fantastic for our health and our body.

"The majority of alternative milks are lower in energy, or kilojoules, and can contain a lot less fat which helps with the kilojoule content being lower.

"But unfortunately a lot of them are considerably low in protein and calcium, they don't have much calcium at all."

That is, unless they are fortified. Many alternative milks add key nutrients, like calcium, to make them more comparable to the health benefits of cow's milk.

"Most of them are fortified these days to meet up with the nutritional quality of milk when it comes to cow's milk for calcium intake," he said.

"Out of all the milk alternatives, soy milk which has been out the longest, still comes out on top. It is closest to the nutritional complexity of what cow's milk is."

Ms Davies said consumers wanting to make the switch to plant-based milks for health reasons needed to do their research first.

"A lot of people do point the finger at nut milk for being high in sugar and for not having the ample amount of protein, and compared to dairy milk not having the same amount of calcium," she said.

"It is about picking the milks that are the better ones on the market. Most nut milks are fortified with B12, Vitamin D and folate and a lot of soy milks are also complete proteins because they contain the nine amino acids."

Read more at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-22/australians-slowly-turning-to-alternative-milks/7949890

Brexit: Cobra beer baron Karan Bilimoria slams proposed cuts to UK immigration

British business leaders are concerned that a push to dramatically wind back immigration could seriously harm the UK economy.

Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed to reduce net migration from over 300,000 a year to less than 100,000, and introduce a controversial register of foreign workers.

Karan Bilimoria, an Indian-born entrepreneur who co-founded the Cobra Beer empire, accused the Conservatives of losing the plot, and said countries like Australia would benefit from Britain turning its back on immigrants.

Know the forecast in Beer Industry at: https://goo.gl/dzx7Eb

"We have the lowest level of unemployment in living memory - we have the highest level of employment in living memory, and that's in spite of having over 3 million people from the EU living and working in the UK," he told 7.30.

"What would we do without those 3 million people from the EU living and working in the UK?"

Beer cashed in on UK curry house boom

Lord Bilimoria arrived in England from India as a 19-year-old student. While studying law at Cambridge, he and a friend decided the English needed a new beer - one specifically made to drink with curries.

"Our first company car was a £295 battered Citroen called Albert, and we would drive it and sell our most expensive Indian beer," he said.

"It could take fifteen cases and if you looked down you could see the road through the floor of the car."

Cobra beer is now sold in 99 per cent of licensed Indian restaurants in the UK as well as in 45 other countries around the world.

In 2006 the beer baron was appointed to the House of Lords and in 2014 became chancellor of the University of Birmingham.

Lord Bilimoria said he got his opportunities because the UK opened up under Margaret Thatcher.

"When I came to this country as a student in the early 80s, Britain was the sick man of Europe, Britain had no respect in the world economy," he said.

"Entrepreneurship was looked down upon as second-hand car salesmen."

Now, he says, the Conservative Government is sending out all the wrong messages.

As well as wanting to cut immigration, the Government is also proposing more restrictive international student regulations.

"Instead of setting a target to increase the amount of international students, in a way a country like Australia who gets it does, we put them off and send out these negative signals," Lord Bilimoria said.

"It's just economically illiterate to do that. Australia, I know, are laughing at us.

"I've heard from senior Australian Government officials saying, 'We thank you for your immigration policies in the UK because you are sending the brightest and best from countries like India to us in Australia and we welcome them.'"

Read more at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-25/business-leaders-say-immigration-changes-threaten-uk-economy/7959766

Boston Beer Bubbles Up Despite Another Painful Quarter

Shares rose even after the craft brewer fell well short of expectations. Here's why.

Boston Beer (NYSE:SAM) stock climbed more than 4% Friday, after the company released third-quarter 2016 results, but that doesn't mean Boston Beer was toasting its own performance.

Boston Beer's headline numbers

In fact, on the surface there was little to like about Boston Beer's report. Quarterly revenue declined 13.5% year over year to $253.4 million, net income fell 18.4% to $31.5 million, and -- thanks in part to Boston Beer's repurchase of around 807,000 shares of Class A common stock for $138.4 million during the quarter -- net income per diluted share fell a more modest 13% year over year, to $2.48.

By comparison, and though we don't typically pay close attention to Wall Street's quarterly demands, analysts' consensus estimates predicted Boston Beer would achieve higher earnings of $2.60 per share on revenue of $279 million.

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Depletions -- a key measure for how quickly Boston Beer's products travel from warehouses to consumer outlets -- declined 8% year over year, marking a negative acceleration from the metric's 5% slide last quarter. This also means that early improvements in depletions trends that management cited as of last quarter's report didn't hold for the duration of the quarter. To be fair, though, Boston Beer CEO Martin Roper did caution at the time that "it's too early to determine if these improvements are sustainable."

"Our total company depletion trends declined in the third quarter at a slightly faster rate as we lapped new beer launches from last year," explained Boston Beer founder and Chairman Jim Koch, "and we saw a further slowdown in growth across the craft-brewing industry."

Roper elaborated that depletions declines in Q3 were primarily driven by decreases in Boston Beer's flagship Samuel Adams, Angry Orchard, Coney Island, and Traveler brands, which were only partially offset by continued gains from the Twisted Tea, Truly Spiked & Sparkling varieties.

Thirsty to find growth again

So why did the market reward Boston Beer stock with Friday's jump?

For one, keep in mind that Boston Beer is still down more than 30% over the past year as of this writing. That decline might be enticing for any investors still optimistic for the prospects of the craft-beer market over the long term. And Boston Beer isn't sitting on its heels as it continues to get pressed by both larger and smaller rivals encroaching on its niche.

In keeping with a comprehensive review of Boston Beer's brand messaging and packaging completed (ahead of schedule) last quarter, Koch noted that a "major packaging update for Samuel Adams Boston Lager has already shipped, to be followed by new Seasonal and Rebel packaging by the end of the fourth quarter."

In addition, Boston Beer expects to complete the national draft launch of its new Samuel Adams Rebel Juiced tropical IPA by the end of this month and has plans for "reimagining" its seasonal program with several promising new seasonal brews over the first three months of 2017.

On operational efficiency, financial guidance

But perhaps most intriguing were Roper's comments that Boston Beer is now conducting another comprehensive review, this time of its brand strategies and activation plans with the aim of ensuring "our investments are effective and efficient in building long-term brand equities."

This news naturally spurred some rumblings on Wall Street of whether Boston Beer might be considering whether to put itself up for sale. But until an actual acquisition scenario materializes -- and in light of management's decidedly long-term comments (more on that in a moment) -- I think investors would be wise to focus first on the actual business.

Read more at: http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/23/boston-beer-bubbles-up-despite-another-painful-qua.aspx

Flavors Market to Reach $15.2 Billion, Globally, by 2020

A new report by Allied Market Research, titled, "Flavors (Food and Beverages) Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2014 - 2020", forecasts the global flavors market to reach $15.2 billion by 2020 at a CAGR of 4.3% from 2015 to 2020. In 2014, Natural flavors segment taken over the lead to hold the majority of share in terms of value. Strong demand for organic processed food & beverages remained the major growth thrust for natural flavors market segment. The growth outlook for natural flavors remains strong while synthetic flavors may witness negative growth.

For more information about the report: http://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/flavors-market

Demand for organic and healthy food products, changing consumer preferences, introduction of new and enhanced flavors, and demand growth of processed food products has been instrumental in the growth of flavors market. Further, expanding purchasing powers, changes in eating habits, hectic work schedule and improper diets would supplement the market growth. On contrary, factors such as stringent food safety regulations and few adverse effects on human health would pose a major challenge for the market growth. However, natural flavors has been able in addressing such concerns and would be growing further on this account.

North America currently is the largest consumer of natural flavors; however, by 2020, Asia Pacific would catch-up and marginally lead the natural flavors market segment. In addition, the developing and advance developing nations would render the faster growth for the natural flavors market. Nevertheless, North America and Europe will continue to hold over half of the revenue share for natural flavors segment till 2020. Despite overall negative growth in synthetic flavors market, the outlook will remain slightly positive in Latin America, Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific will remain the largest market for synthetic flavors by 2020.

Beverage flavor products segment is the largest in terms of revenue, closely followed by bakery & confectionery and savory & snacks flavors segments. In contrast, the growth for dairy and frozen product flavors would be highest during the forecast period largely due to high demand of meat flavor products in Asia Pacific and Latin America. Animal and Pet food segment would also gain momentum with emerging economies being at the fore front of the growth. The overall Animal & pet food flavors market segment will grow at a CAGR of 4.4% during 2015-2020.

Key Findings:

• Asia Pacific would continue to generate maximum revenue with a market share of 31% by 2020.
• Africa would register the highest CAGR of 11.0% during 2015-2020 in the overall market, though at a small base
• Latin America would exhibit highest growth in beverage flavors product segment with the highest CAGR of 5.8%.
• Huabao International gained about 1.5% market share in 2014 over 2013.

Asia Pacific would consolidate its dominance with strong demand for Ice Cream, Soft Drinks, Dairy, Meat, and Animal Feed flavors during the forecast period. In 2015, Latin America would become the billion dollar market and will continue growing at the fastest rate of 5.8% during the forecast period. Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe would also witness significant growth on account of growth in demand of packaged food and beverages. Western Europe will exhibit steady growth while North America would have diminishing growth.

Will the craft beer industry boom or bust?

By the end of 2016, New York State craft brewers will make about a quarter billion pints of beer. That's a lot, but still only enough to give us drinking-age New Yorkers less than two per month. That's why people like Brewers Association Chief Economist Bart Watson say the industry is fine.

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"The growth in breweries is built on solid demand fundamentals," Watson says. "Beer lovers want fuller flavor, they want more variety, and they want beers from small and independent local producers."

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New York brewers, like Pat Greene at Chelsea Craft Brewing Company, can get New York ingredients, which is what the people want.

"The population is younger, professional, well educated, and also enjoys fresh ingredients in their products not only in their beer but their food and their wine," Greene says. "And the brewer now can make those small batches of beer and serve them locally."

The big difference between the bust of the late 1990s and today is the beer is just a lot better. The people making it are smarter and more experienced. The ingredients are fresher and local. And this is another thing these breweries have: tap rooms. The tap rooms let them sell directly to the consumer. That helps them withstand downturns in the industry.

"For many breweries, those direct sales, they're a lifeline," Watson says. "And even if sales decrease in wider distribution we've seen breweries pull back to their taprooms and continue to stay in business."

"A lot of the breweries are designed just for that," Greene says. "Their equipment I'd say is a little bit bigger than a home brewer's where they can do small-batch beer and they know that every ounce of that is going to be sold at a retail price so their markups are good and they can survive."

Even if there is no bubble right now, craft beer sales are down. But companies like Boston Beer Company, the maker of Sam Adams, are playing a big role in that. They're still "craft" brewers but their sales are slumping. And while these producers are nowhere near as big as Budweiser or Miller, Fortune Magazine's John Kell says craft beer drinkers might feel like they're still too big.

"People kind of want to discover something new when they are discovering a craft beer so for a company like Sam Adams that's been around for over 30 years at this point doesn't feel very local," Kell says. "People are really excited about experiencing something that's new, and tasting something that's very local. When they travel they want to taste a local beer -- that's part of the experience."

So while the bigger brewers do have things to figure out, your smaller, local tap rooms will still be pouring plenty of pints for the foreseeable future.

Source: http://www.fox5ny.com/news/212750226-story