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United States Food and Drink Report Q4 2009
Business Monitor International, Oct 2009, Pages: 84
United States Food and Drink Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, food and drink associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on the United States' food and drink industry.
The upturn in business sentiment following the global economic downturn looks like it could bring with it a wave of consolidation in the global food and drink sector. As home to some of the world’s most important multinational firms the US looks like it will play a key part in this process, with two major deals announced over the last three months.
In September it was reported that JBS, the world’s largest beef processor, is set to launch a bid for the largest poultry processor in the US, Pilgrim’s Pride. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2008 after struggling to contend with high debts, low poultry demand and rising feed costs and should therefore be available for an attractive price. JBS has been aggressively expanding in the US and despite political opposition managed to seal acquisition of the beef operations meat group Smithfield Foods for US$560mn in October 2008. However, plans to acquire the country’s fourth largest beef producer, National Beef Packing Company, foundered after the US department of Justice had sought to block the deal on competition grounds.
The authors also believe the sharp appreciation of the US dollar against the Brazilian real, along with the deteriorating global economic situation may also have played a part in persuading JBS not to challenge this decision, with the currency movements making US assets much more expensive to Brazilian firms. However, with the global economic situation looking up and the real rallying against the dollar, the firm has once again turned its attentions to the huge US market. Pilgrim’s Pride is the largest chicken producer in the US, accounting for around a quarter of the entire chicken market, and the acquisition would put JBS on a par with current market leader Tyson Foods in terms of overall scale in the meat sector. Another firm looking to take advantage of the depressed state of global equity prices is Kraft which in September launched a GBP10.2bn (US$16bn) bid for UK-based confectionery producer Cadbury.
Although Cadbury has so far rejected these advances a tie-up between the two businesses would make strategic sense given the global scale and brand reach that a combined entity would afford. A combined firm would be a formidable force in the confectionery sector and offer enough scale to challenge the might of Mars Wrigley, which has assumed a leading position in the sector following the merger of Mars and Wrigley in 2008. However, the attractions of Cadbury have not gone unnoticed and there is growing speculation that a rival could launch a counter bid. The authors believe the two most likely candidates are Nestlé and Hershey. Nestlé is currently flush with money having disposed of part of its stake in eye care business Alcon and would see Cadbury’s brands as an ideal fit for its own confectionery business. Yet Nestlé is unlikely to want to get into a bidding war and, as it is already the world’s largest food firm, may see Cadbury’s assets as ‘nice to have’ rather than ‘must have’. Perhaps a more likely contender is Hershey, which has failed to make any significant progress outside of the US market and may see Cadbury as its last chance to develop an international business.
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