1WorldSync And FoodLogiQ Partner To Improve Food Supply Chain Traceability And Transparency
by 1WorldSync
Posted: 2016-06-30 15:34:15 EST

Lawrenceville, NJ - 1WorldSync, the leading multi-enterprise product information network, and FoodLogiQ, the leading food safety, traceability and sustainability software as a service company, announced today that they have partnered to provide the entire spectrum of the food supply industry with a supply chain traceability solution that delivers transparency while tackling food safety and compliance issues.

The foodservice industry is under intense pressure for complete and accurate product information as it relates to consumer safety and the growing use of web-based platforms in the foodservice supply chain. FoodLogiQ Connect, the leading software as a service food traceability software, will leverage 1WorldSync’s suite of tools that provide data validity, quality, and intelligence while enabling customers to maintain a seamless connection with trading partners to make sure accurate, complete product information is flowing through the supply chain at all times.

“Food industry trends are changing fast—sometimes faster than what you and your supply chain can keep up with. From the customer demand for transparency to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s mandate for better processes, traceability is no longer just a nice-to-have asset. Without this sort of insight, keeping up with the evolving industry will be highly problematic, if not impossible,” explained Dean Wiltse, CEO of FoodLogiQ.

“The fresh food industry has struggled in the past in figuring out a way to engage in true data synchronization with their retail and foodservice partners,” explained Nick Manzo, Global Omni-Channel Lead at 1WorldSync. “1WorldSync’s product information and fresh industry solutions coupled with FoodLogiQ’s track/traceability and supply chain management capabilities allows the fresh industry an opportunity to be fully engaged in global product information sharing.”

Historically, the foodservice industry has focused on how to manufacture, distribute and sell items. However, in recent years there has been a shift to provide transparency and visibility driving foodservice manufacturers, brokers, distributors and operators to address new requirements from their customers, as well as government regulations for menu labeling and other nutritional standards.

FoodLogiQ Connect is an online supplier community used by food companies to manage quality, safety, compliance and traceability across their supply chains.

Rejected Mondelez-Hershey Deal Could Have Recast Global CPG Industry

Posted June 30, 2016 by Dale Buss

Whether this is another urgent consolidation move within Big Food to cope with seismic industry changes or a way to take a huge new step into a  bright future—or both—Mondelez has shaken up the food and beverage business today with reports of its offer to acquire Hershey.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the parent of Oreo, Cadbury and other major global confectionery and snack brands made a $23 billion takeover bid for Hershey—$107 a share—with the deal comprised half in stock and half in cash. The report goosed Hershey stock.

Hershey, however, issued a press release stating: “The Board of Directors of The Hershey Company unanimously rejected preliminary, non-binding indication of interest from Mondelez Company.” It went on to say Hershey “determined that it provided no basis for further discussion between Mondelēz and the Company.”

If the deal were to go through, according to the Wall Street Journal, Mondelez reportedly pledged to protect jobs in the event of a merger, locate its headquarters in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and actually rename the company Hershey.

Such a combination could accomplish a few things.

Mondelez’s market capitalization, at about $68 billion, is nearly three times that of Hershey, at $25 billion—but the companies and their brands are complementary, with relatively little overlap. Yes, Cadbury is candy and so is Hershey, but they fit well geographically. Mondelez is strong globally and in cookies, with Oreo, while Hershey, of course, is the epitome of chocolate, along with Mars, and is an iconic snack provider in the US.

Each traditional “junk food” company also has made major strides in shifting their portfolios and concerns to the better-for-you trend in the market.

Mondelez, for example, has innovated with new brands such as BelVita, a breakfast biscuit that includes complex carbs for long-burning energy release and, more recently, a “free-from” cracker brand called Good Thins. Meanwhile, Hershey has taken a strong tack toward more nutritional fare by, for instance, acquiring the Brookside brand of fruit-and-nut bars and by readying to launch its own new brand of fruit-and-protein products, called SoFit.

Both Hershey and Mondelez also have devoted considerable resources, and much of their positioning and branding lately, to making their global supply chains more “sustainable” in terms of both environmental improvements and in the treatment of cocoa farmers and other suppliers. Among other things, such moves give each company more appealing stories to tell western millennial consumers who are greatly concerned about such corporate social responsibility considerations.

Interestingly, of course, Mondelez was created by a split of the old Kraft Foods conglomerate, in 2012, with its new sibling hanging on to the US grocery business and brands such as Oscar Mayer and Jell-O. But by 2013, activist investors such as Nelson Peltz were agitating for Mondelez to acquire the Frito-Lay snack business from PepsiCo.

Then, last year, Kraft was acquired by Heinz as cost pressures, slow growth in the CPG industry, shareholder agitation and uncertain global economies prompted their combination.

Kellogg's is opening a restaurant that charges more than $7 for a bowl of cereal

• Kate Taylor
 

• Jun. 28, 2016, 5:35 PM
 

Hollis Johnson

Kellogg is entering the restaurant business to modernize the cereal industry.

On July 4, the cereal company is opening its first-ever restaurant: Kellogg's NYC, a trendy, New York City café. The menu, crafted by Milkbar's Christina Tosi, is filled with unexpected items such as Rice Krispies with green tea powder and ice cream topped with Cracklin' Oat Bran, dried cranberries, white chocolate, and toasted coconut.

"You want to add a fresh taste to cereal, and you want it to be relevant to food culture and what is happening in people's lives," Noel Geoffroy, Kellogg's senior vice president of morning foods marketing and innovation, told Business Insider. "Kellogg's NYC does that."

Prior to the location's official opening, Business Insider had the chance to take a look at the location and try some of the menu items.

Here's what it's like to eat at the first Kellogg's cereal café in the world. 

Kellogg's NYC is located in the heart of New York City, in Times Square, picked for its high-foot traffic and constant influx of travelers.

Kate Taylor

However, unlike the chaotic streets or the frantic energy of the nearby M&M's World, Kellogg's NYC is intended to be an old-school oasis in the busy city.

Kate Taylor

Anthony Rudolf, formerly of Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, partnered with Kellogg to design the café. He aimed to make it the "antithesis of Times Square," allowing the experience and the cereal to speak for themselves.

Kate Taylor

On the walls hang chalk drawings, created by a local artist.

Kate Taylor

One pokes fun at Rudolf's attention to detail — specifically, his quest to find the perfect cereal spoon. It's a little detail that reveals Kellogg's NYC's intentions to be more than a tourist trap, and instead elevate cereal to a new culinary level, in New York and beyond.

Kate Taylor

In traditional fast-casual fashion, customers order at the counter.

Kate Taylor

The star of the menu is the cereal bowls, priced $7.50 for a regular, or $6.50 for a small.

Kate Taylor

You can also order an ice cream sundae for $9.50 or $8.50 — topped, of course, with cereal.

Kate Taylor

If you think you can craft a better cereal creation then Christina Tosi, the creator of cereal milk, you can also create your own, choosing from options like thyme, pistachios, and chai tea powder.

Kate Taylor

In classic New York City café style, there isn't a ton of room, though there are counters and tables available for customers eating or waiting for their order to be prepared.

Kate Taylor

Customers pick up their order in a frosted cabinet.

Kate Taylor

Kellogg's NYC uses a buzzer to alert customers when their orders are ready, and what cabinet they should open.

Kate Taylor

Rudolf says the pick-up system mixes the traditional kitchen cabinet filled with cereal and quick-service experience, with an "element of surprise and delight."

Kate Taylor

The brown bag is another call-back to the typical cereal purchase at a grocery store — plus, a convenient way to package the milk and cereal.

Kate Taylor

Rudolph believes that simplicity of the milk-and-cereal combo isn't a bad thing. "It's so easy to open up a can of beer, and you still go to a pub," he says, arguing that the unique experience, innovation, and chance to be part of something larger is what motivates people to go to restaurants. Still, the cereal has to pass a certain taste test to be worth the $6.50 pricetag.

Kate Taylor

First up: Life in Color, a Froot Loop-based creation intended to top a sundae. With the combination of sweet and tart, the dish would be better served as an ice cream topping than a bowl of cereal-and-milk.

Hollis Johnson

The Corny Blue are tasty, but not incredibly innovative. Instead, they're a good example of how Kellogg's hopes to change how people think about cereal.

Hollis Johnson

With Corn Pops, jam, lemon zest, and salt, The Corny Blues are made of ingredients almost everyone has on hand, yet completely elevate the cereal. Plus, the jam turns the milk a strange, yet appealing, blue color.

Kate Taylor

Berry Me In Green Tea, on the other hand, allows innovation to overpower taste. The green tea powder turns the milk green and adds a peculiar flavor — but doesn't do much to actually improve on the taste of Rice Krispies.

Hollis Johnson

Peppermint Patty is, unsurprisingly, delicious. It's Frosted Mini-Wheats Chocolate, plus cocoa powder, plus fresh mint — a tasty choco-bomb intended as sundae topping, but pretty similar to what a nice ice cream shop could serve up.

Hollis Johnson

The item that stood out as worth the price tag, based on taste alone, is the surprisingly nuanced Pistachio and Lemon. It's a summery mashup that feels handcrafted by a talented chef, despite the ingredients list of Special K, Frosted Flakes, pistachios, lemon zest, and thyme.

Hollis Johnson

As cereal sales have declined in recent years, Kellogg's has looked for new ways to make cereal appeal to customers, especially millennials. Kellogg's NYC follows in the footsteps of a 2014 pop-up with Tosi and the Stir It Up campaign that partnered with well-known chefs to craft cereal-based dishes.

You may only have the chance to visit Kellogg's NYC if you stop by Times Square, but its debut is a sign of what the cereal business more widely is hoping to be a dawn of a new era. "We see this idea of helping reimagine what a bowl of cereal can be," says Geoffroy. "Christina was very purposeful about pairing things that were interesting, but also truly using things that people could envision having in their own kitchen."