You have achieved good sales growth in the past. Looking ahead, what do you believe will be the primary drivers of future sales growth?

MARK> In the United States we are revitalizing our entire spice and seasoning line to bring renewed interest and excitement to the category.    This initiative tackles some of the foremost consumer issues with an easy-to-open flip-top cap and an easier-to-shop merchandising system. With this system we can prominently feature new items such as our tabletop spices, seasoned pepper blends or roasting rubs. For our grocery customers, the system is reducing out-of-stock situations and reducing restock time by up to 40%. We have installed 8,500 stores and aim to convert another 3,500 to 5,500.

CHUCK> For our U.S. industrial business, strong customer relationships continue to be the critical factor in achieving our growth targets.
    On average, our share of business with strategic customers is about 25%. To grow this, we are guided by the customers’ view of what is important as we build upon our strong foundation of trust, innovative processes and efficient supply chain initiatives.
    This partnership model led to the successful design and implementation of our new CreateIT® process. Together with the customers’ marketing and innovation teams, we

start with idea generation and move quickly and efficiently through product development, consumer validation and commercialization. In this way our customers are reducing their development cost and getting successful products to market ahead of their competition. The benefit to McCormick is a greater share of our customers’ business and our participation in products that succeed in the marketplace over a longer time horizon.

ALAN> With the goal of improving both sales growth and profitability, we are completing a transformation of our U.S. industrial business that began in 2006. Chuck and his team have reduced the number of customers we serve by 31% and reduced the number of products sold by 20%. In very short order, we have better aligned our resources, particularly in product innovation, behind our strategic customers.
    Product innovation is also a key initiative to drive sales of our consumer business. We have had considerable success building upon a number of product platforms.

In recent years 10% of our
global sales came from products
that we have introduced in the
last three years.