This week, sustainability has been high on the agenda. Arla Foods UK unveiled a new farming standards model to bring sustainable change to dairy farming in the country. Nestlé has helped to form a new platform to combat food waste in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the same week, the global leader announced plans to reduce salt and saturated fat in its iconic Maggi products in the UK and Ireland. Omya announced significant price increases for calcium carbonate products globally and Hershey completed the acquisition of Pirate Brands.

In brief: Sustainability
With ongoing volatility in the global milk markets, increasing misunderstanding of the sector, polarized levels of support for UK farmers and a new post-Brexit Agriculture Bill, the challenges for dairy farmers are mounting. As a result, farmer-owned cooperative Arla Foodsis launching Arla UK 360, a new standard in UK dairy farming with an approach to benefit everyone. The Arla UK 360 program covers the six areas essential to building a profitable, responsible dairy farm business. It incorporates best practice in today’s dairy farming across animal health & welfare, people development, environment & natural resources, community engagement and economic resilience and reinvestment and will then drive a vision for research & development areas that will lead the UK dairy agenda.

Nestlé has helped launch a new initiative to prevent food loss and waste in Latin America and the Caribbean. The #SinDesperdicio (“without waste”) platform will be led by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with partners from the private, public and civil society sectors. A number of companies from the food and technology sectors are participating, including Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, Femsa Foundation, Grupo Bimbo, IBM and Oxxo. In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 127 million tons of food are lost and wasted annually, or around 223 kilograms per person per year. This phenomenon takes place in a region wher close to 42 million people suffer from acute undernutrition. The platform will promote four areas of work: innovative projects, national and local public policies, knowledge generation and responsible consumption habits.

In brief: Product innovation
In the same week, Maggi, Nestlés international culinary brand, is relaunching its iconic Fusian and 3 Minute Noodles block range and So Juicy and So Tender dry recipe mixes in the UK and Ireland, with nutritionally improved recipes and updated packaging designs. Following years of research and development, Maggi’s noodle range and recipe mixes have been reformulated using more of the great tasting familiar ingredients that people would find in their kitchen cupboard. Maggi Fusian and the Maggi 3 Minute noodle block range are now packed with even more carefully seleced authentic ingredients and contain 25 percent less salt compared to the market average. The products have been developed with nutritional benefits in mind, yet without compromising on the delicious flavors, consumers have come to know and love, according to Nestlé.

In brief: Business 
Omya is significantly increasing prices for its calcium carbonate products globally, starting from January 1, 2019, or as customer contracts allow. According to the company, this increase is a consequence of the continued pressure from escalating raw material, chemical, energy and transportation costs and overall inflation across all regions. “Our continued investments in supply chain efficiencies, productivity improvements, expense control, digitization and operational excellence only allowed us to offset these significant and unprecedented cost increases partially,” says Thoralf Gliese, Executive Vice President for Sales, Marketing & Innovation at Omya.

PB Gelatins/PB Leiner, a business unit of Tessenderlo Group, has announced that it will be changing its brand name to PB Leiner. It has also introduced a new baseline – The Clear Solution – as well as a modernized version of the company logo. It is felt that this will enable the company to present itself throughout the world as one global company and the name was carefully chosen to reflect the combined 200 years of history of PB Gelatins/PB Leiner. As a company, the aim was also to take advantage of this moment to freshen up the logo and define a new baseline: The Clear Solution. This not only reflects the quality of PB Leiner’s products but also its commitment to finding ideal solutions for its customers’ needs, according to the company. PB Leiner aims to achieve this through further investments in innovation and adopting an even more customer-oriented approach.

In brief: Acquisitions
The Hershey Company has finalized the acquisition of Pirate Brands from B&G Foods, Inc., including the Pirate’s Booty, Smart Puffs and Original Tings brands, for a purchase price of US$420 million, or approximately US$360 million net of tax benefits. “We are thrilled to have the fast-growing Pirate’s Booty brand as part of the Hershey product portfolio,” says Mary Beth West, Chief Growth Officer, Hershey Company. “More and more consumers are seeking great-tasting snacks with clean labels and no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives and Pirate’s Booty fits this need.”

Cott Corporation has announced that DS Services, a Cott Corporation subsidiary, acquired The Mountain Valley Spring Company for US$78.5 million in cash from Great Range Capital. Mountain Valley is a fast-growing American brand of spring and sparkling water and is one of the most recognized home and office distribution brands in the US. It has been bottling in glass continuously since 1871, with one production facility in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and four protected and owned springs in the Ouachita Mountains with excess capacity to supply the long-term demand. Channels of business include HOD, the natural food channel, on-premise, E-commerce and strategic contract packing.

In brief: Appointments & retirements
Beverage alcohol company, Constellation Brands, has announced that Bill Newlands (pictured) will assume the role of President and CEO, succeeding current CEO Rob Sands, on March 1, 2019. Also effective at the same time, Sands will assume the role of executive chair. Richard Sands, who is currently serving in the role of executive chair, will assume the role of executive vice chair on March 1, 2019.

In brief: Other highlights
Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, the Netherlands and Avebe have signed a cooperation agreement for a “sustainable and fruitful cooperation.” Henk Pijlman, chairman of the Executive Board of Hanze University and Gerard ten Bolscher, Managing Director Innovations of Avebe, signed the agreement during the Sustainability Day at the Zernike Campus in Groningen. Avebe and Hanze University have been working together successfully for some years and this has now been formalized in an agreement. based on this agreement, both parties want to expand the partnership and connect more smartly. The joint aim of the partnership is to increase social prosperity in the northern region. The initiative also promotes regional cooperation.