We also have our weekly look at the global dairy markets with Charlie Hyland, from INTL FCStone.
Top 10 dairy brands: Yili closes gap on Danone
The latest Brand Finance Food & Drink 2019 report shows that, again, Switzerland’s Nestlé tops the food ranking, although its brand value increased by just 1% year on year to $19.6bn.
The brand saw a boost in organic growth, following stronger performances in the brand’s two largest markets, China and the US.
When looking at the brand portfolios across the food and drinks sector, Nestlé’s portfolio is the most valuable with a combined brand value of $70.5bn, up 11% on the previous year.
Dairy brands Danone and Yili claim second and third place in the food ranking, respectively and top the dairy ranking. After recording a 24% increase in brand value to $7.7bn, Yili has closed the gap considerably with Danone, after the French giant suffered a 10% loss in brand value to $8.1bn.
Asia’s most valuable dairy brand for four years running, Yili has committed to its global expansion program and, despite losing out to French dairy manufacturer Lactalis to acquire Danone’s subsidiary Stonyfield, has successfully bought Thailand’s Chomthana. The brand shows no signs of slowing down with the recently announced acquisition of New Zealand’s second largest dairy producer, Westland. These moves are all key steps towards the brand’s ambition of building a global network beyond its domestic market, targeting 2bn consumers at home and abroad by 2020.
Yili has also retained the highest brand potential score in the dairy ranking, highlighting the vast future growth opportunities for the brand, the report continued. In 2018, Yili upgraded its R&D Innovation Centre in Europe and opened the doors to a new facility in the Netherlands. Yili considers its innovation strategy to be the core power for its brand growth in the future.
Fellow Chinese brand, Mengniu, has also recorded a significant increase in brand value (up 45% to $5.0bn) and has entered the top 10 in the food ranking for the first time. Both Yili and Mengniu have benefitted from the boom in the Chinese dairy market, which is currently on track to overtake the US as the world’s largest dairy market.
The only changes to the dairy top ten sees Yakult rise two places to sixth, with Almarai dropping from sixth to seventh, and Yoplait dropping from seventh to ninth in spite of seeing its brand value rise by 6.7%.
New in the top ten are Canada’s Dairyland (eighth) and Italian company Parmalat (tenth).
Christeyns Food Hygiene launches advanced membrane cleaning range
Christeyns Food Hygiene, a chemical company based in Warrington in the UK, has introduced a new portfolio of cleaning products to tackle cleaning of membranes in the dairy and beverage industries.
Working with sister companies within the Christeyns group, Christeyns Food Hygiene has developed a range of specially-blended products that are able to effectively clean plant equipment with minimal use of chlorine.
Chlorine has long been an essential component in manufacturing, industrial and wastewater treatment due to its ability to eliminate most pathogenic microorganisms. However, it can inhibit the performance of membranes used in the filtration process and leave chlorite and chlorate traces in end product.
Membrane filtration is widely used in the dairy industry and is a proven separation method. Complex soiling occurs during this stage of production that needs to be eliminated thoroughly in the cleaning process and any damage to the membranes due to cleaning could result in production down time and potential costly replacement.
“The new cleaning system comprises alkali, acid and enzyme technology specifically developed to remove complex soil types in dairy, beverage and brewing industries with limited use of chlorine,“ McCabe said.
“The system caters more accurately to the modern production plant with an improved surfactant structure and more complex enzyme chemistry.”
This new chemistry is suitable for cleaning a range of membrane types including spiral wound, thin film composite, plate, frame and ceramic style filtration systems, the company said.
Among other companies, Christeyns Food Hygiene work with Tetra Pak, Italy, and along with the effective cleaning, have also been able to reduce water and energy consumption in both cleaning and production.
Christeyns Food Hygiene is part of the Christeyns UK group of companies whose headquarters are in Bradford, Yorkshire.
Ice Cream Alliance annual show changes
The Ice Cream Alliance (ICA), a UK trade association for ice cream manufacturers and retailers, is changing its annual event.
The Ice Cream Expo, which takes place annually in Harrogate, in Yorkshire, has now become the Ice Cream & Artisan Food Show. The changes were due to members’ requests to reflect the needs of the ice cream parlor sector.
According to accountancy company PWC, the number of ice cream parlors in the UK is growing by 20% annually. There are currently around 1,000 parlors in the UK, with around 200 new outlets opening annually.
As ice cream parlors do not exclusively sell ice cream, they also sell coffee, tea and other hot drinks, cakes, confectionery and savory snacks, a recent ICA survey revealed members want to see these products also reflected in the annual show.
“To keep up with an ever changing and growing sector, we surveyed our members to ask them what we could do to improve our trade show,” said Zelica Carr, CEO of the ICA.
“Most of the wanted to see more product suppliers across artisan food and drinks – plus 63% wanted to see coffee machines companies and 86% wanted general catering supplies businesses, covering everything from clothing to cleaning products, to exhibit.”
The Ice Cream and Artisan Foods Show will take place from February 11-13, 2020, at the Yorkshire Events Centre in Harrogate.
Ice cream image: Getty Images/magone
