Who To Watch This Year In The Food Industry (Part Two Of Three)
By Katrina Oakley, contributing writer, Food Online
In the first segment of this three-part series, occurrences at and strategies from Tyson Foods and Nestle were explored. In this, the second installment of Who To Watch This Year In The Food Industry, Hampton Creek Foods' innovations, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo’s ability to build relationships, and Soda Stream’s advances in the food industry will be discussed.
Hampton Creek Foods
Joshua Tetrick, CEO and Founder of Hampton Creek Foods, is attracting investors by developing a plant-based egg substitute. On Tetrick’s side are advocates for the humane treatment of animals. The Hampton Creek Foods egg product is created without any assistance from chickens, often kept in claustrophobic living conditions. Also benefitting from the animal-free production are environmentally-conscience consumers. Raising livestock consumes an enormous amount of fossil fuels, but since Hampton Creek Food’s product doesn’t rely on animals, its greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced. Health-conscience consumers may also benefit as Tetrick says his egg substitute is cholesterol free.
This creation may have everyone from chicken farmers to food retailers a bit worried as Tetrick claims his company can produce fake eggs more inexpensively than chickens are able to produce the real thing. The egg industry is battling Hampton Creek Foods with Google search ads promoting real eggs. The American Egg Board has also urged consumers to “accept not substitutes,” for the real thing. It will be interesting to see if Hampton Creek Foods can exactly duplicate the egg and how willing consumers are to accept its product.
PepsiCo
Last month, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said publicly that the company has been going through a tough transition from a “fun-filled” array or products to one that emphasizes healthy, “good-for –you” ones. Making this transition even more difficult was Nooyi’s fight to change how the company’s products are made. Nooyi wants to reduce salt, sugar, and fat in many of PepsiCo’s products in an effort to support the company’s transition. Thus far, the transition seems to be working, as PepsiCo reported a nearly 5 percent jump in net income in 2013’s Q4.
But it’s not just Nooyi’s vision for the company that put her at number two on Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women In Business List. In a January interview, Nooyi disclosed some information regarding her unusual method of building relationships within the company. Nooyi calls the parents of current, key employees along with potential and recruited new employees in hopes to “bond employees to the company” by “engaging them with their hearts.” The immediate results of Nooyi’s attempts at boosting employee morale were not supported by the company’s 2013 annual sales figures. But, as she mentioned, the company is amidst a transition. Can Nooyi’s vision of a healthier PepsiCo accompanied by a unique stance on creating a company bond turn the company around?
SodaStream
Last month, SodaStream saw its stock plummet after reporting lackluster preliminary earnings while Coca-Cola announced it would be entering the make-your-own soda market. The decline was the biggest for the company since 2011 and the company’s CEO, Daniel Birnbaum, says the first half of 2014 would be tough for SodaStream.
However, it might not be all doom and gloom for SodaStream, as late January brought some good news for the beverage maker. On Jan. 29, both companies announced a deal has been struck and a partnership was formed to launch new flavors of beverage concentrates for the at-home soda making machines. Consumers can expect to being seeing Welch’s SodaStream products on retailers’ shelves in the second half of 2014.
In the third and final segment of Who To Watch This Year In The Food Industry, the CEO of Heinz and his cost-cutting endeavors will be discussed along with some plans from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters that could thwart SodaStream’s efforts.
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