| Title | Description |
| Delhaize First Quarter Impresses (Emerging Europe Food and Drink Insight) |
The Belgium-based food retailer Delhaize has been turning the corner of late and has just reported a very well received set of numbers for the first quarter period to March 2013. Having had a really tough time in its most important market, the United States, same-store sales in the US grew 1.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) in Q1 - the strongest in six quarters. Delhaize's shares have been one of the best performing amongst its peer group of large European retailers in 2013 and are up by about 11% at the time of writing on April 22 2013, which underlines the strong reception. |
| Company Strategy: Anheuser-Busch InBev (Emerging Europe Food and Drink Insight) |
AB InBev has seen slightly better volume sales and increased revenues and earnings for its latest financial year. In the 12 months to end December 2012, revenues increased by 7.2% while EBITDA rose by 7.7%. Although this was an improvement on last year's revenue increase of 4.6%, volume growth will remain a key target for the firm moving forward. |
| Shakeup In Retail As Dia Sabanci Agree JV Sale (Emerging Europe Food and Drink Insight) |
On the face of it, you would not think that Turkey would be a place where food retailers would want to leave right now given its growth prospects and the uninspiring state of a lot of retail across most of Europe. While reports have linked Carrefour with a move out of Turkey over the past ten or so months after selling businesses in a number of emerging markets, it is in fact Spain's Dia that is on its way out after agreeing to sell its 60% stake in the DiaSA joint venture to Turkey's Yildiz Holding, which owns the SOK retail company. |
| Soft Drinks Increasingly Interesting (Asia Pacific Food and Drink Insight) |
A number of multinational companies are thought to be looking at Myanmar as it continues to show concrete signs of economic reform. After the country spent the best part of half a century in self-imposed isolation, significant political reform has been taking place. From a food and drink perspective, it is unsurprising that PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company (Coke) are among those firms looking to capitalise on the country's growth potential. More recently, in early February 2013, the domestic company Myanmar Golden Star (MGS) entered into a joint venture with Danish beer giant Carlsberg with a view to manufacturing and distributing beer in the country. |
| X5's Same-Store Sales Remain Low In Q1 (Emerging Europe Food and Drink Insight) |
Russian company X5 Retail Group, one of the country's leading food retailers, has reported like-for-like sales growth of 0.5% for the first quarter to March 2013 as it continues to find same-store growth harder to come by then some of its main rivals, including Magnit. |
| China's Buoyant Beer Market (Asia Pacific Food and Drink Insight) |
China, the world's largest beer market in volume terms, continues to offer promising potential to multinationals looking to counter maturing domestic sales, particularly in Europe and the US. As a recent uptick in regional investment indicates, China remains a key driving force in securing emerging market growth. |
| Carrefour Remains Committed to China and Brazil (Asia Pacific Food and Drink Insight) |
French retailer Carrefour has confirmed its commitment to securing growth in both Brazil and China whilst pursuing a restructure of its domestic operations. Following a string of asset sales in recent months, the company's pledge to drive sales in both emerging markets demonstrates their promising potential in countering austerity-hit consumers in maturing European markets. Indicative of wider industry efforts to diversify internationally, sustaining expansion in these key markets will likely play a significant role in spurring the revival of the world's second largest retailer. |
| Subdued Outlook For Retail Sector (Asia Pacific Food and Drink Insight) |
Japan's organised food retailing sector is Asia's most mature, which comes as no surprise. Mirroring the wider food and drink industry, where opportunities for growth across mainstream sectors such as beer and soft drinks have been increasingly few and far between, many of Japan's leading retailers have had to look abroad for meaningful growth. |
| McDonald's On the Defensive (Emerging Europe Food and Drink Insight) |
Iconic US fast-food chain McDonald's has recently announced plans to accelerate growth in Russia, a key European market for the company. Russia's favourable demographics and encouraging discretionary spending by consumers have spurred McDonald's to tighten its grip on the increasingly dynamic fast-food sector. |
| Foreign Investors Sold On Domino's Story (Asia Pacific Food and Drink Insight) |
Jubilant Foodworks, which operates the Domino's Pizza franchise in India, has thoroughly outperformed the benchmark SENSEX Index since 2011 and has been one of the best ways to play the rising middle-class consumer story over this period. The success of Jubilant has proven that the Western fast-food/casual dining model can work very well in India under the right conditions. |
| Results Reinforce Food & Drink's Defensive Appeal (Emerging Europe Food and Drink Insight) |
Many of the world's largest food and drink companies have reported results over the past week. Most of these have been first quarter numbers while some, such as the French luxury spirits company Remy Cointreau, have reported for the full year. We will use this article to briefly touch on some of the key themes to emerge from this season's numbers and reflect on how they tie into our core views. |
| CEDC Expected To Fall Into Russian Ownership (Emerging Europe Food and Drink Insight) |
Once one of the great growth stories in the Central and Eastern European alcohol market, Poland-based Central European Distribution Company (CEDC) filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on April 7. It now appears very likely that the company will be taken over by Russian alcohol tycoon Roustam Tariko, owner of Russian Standard. CEDC's NASDAQ-listed shares at one point traded at more than US$75 in the period leading up to the global financial crisis but dropped all the way down to zero following the Chapter 11 announcement. |
| Company Overview: Nestlé (Middle East & Africa Food and Drink Insight) |
Nestlé, headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, is the world's largest food and drink company. Founded in 1866, the company operates across a broad range of product segments, from coffee and bottled water to infant formula and pet food. Operating in 86 countries, Nestlé has a strong presence in both developed and emerging markets, with unrivalled category diversity spanning 6,000 brands, including Nestlé, Maggi, Nestcafé, Purelife and Vittel. |
| Another Impressive Quarter From Magnit (Emerging Europe Food and Drink Insight) |
Having assumed the mantle from X5 as Russia's leading food retailer, Magnit had a fantastic 2012 with net income nearly doubling to US$808mn, whereas X5 struggled to generate any real traction in same-store sales following a period of acquisition-led growth. Magnit featured in BMI's Macro-Industry Strategy key views table from December 14 2011 to November 14 2012 with implied gains of 62.9%. Magnit has just reported first quarter results with net income up 29% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RUB6.16bn (US$194.2mn), and same-store sales up 4.8% over the comparison period. The food and drink team continues to really like the Magnit growth story, and believe it will be the primary benefactor from the ongoing formalisation of Russia's retail sector, which is still heavily fragmented. |
| China Cements Coffee Commitment (Asia Pacific Food and Drink Insight) |
Swiss food and drink giant Nestlé has announced plans to build a coffee warehouse in Yunnan, South West China. Signalling the company's continuing commitment to emerging market growth in the world's second largest economy, this large-scale investment with enhanced production capabilities is set to answer growing consumer demand for coffee products in the traditionally tea drinking nation. With consumption per capita still low in comparison to its regional neighbours, and a growing middle class with higher disposable income, the coffee sector offers high growth potential going forward. |
