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3. Fix to Grow in Frozen Bakery.
The North American frozen bakery
industry, including products like bagels,
hearth breads, artisan breads, rolls
and croissants that are sold mostly
through in-store bakeries, is an attractive
market where we have important
strengths. These include high speed lines,
scale plants, leadership in par-baked
breads and rolls, and large retail and
foodservice customers. However there
are challenges, including industry
fragmentation, low capacity utilization,
and rising input costs that have impacted
our profitability. We have made huge
strides in reducing our cost structure,
the results of which were reflected
in improved financial results last year.
In 2008, we will be implementing more
network changes and sharpening our
customer focus to build relationships
that complement our product expertise,
geographic and product innovation capabilities in short, better deeper
relationships with fewer customers.
Once we have restored profitability
in the base business we plan to grow
this business through capital investment
and acquisitions.
4. Value Creation in Value-Added Meat and Meals.
As the growth engine of our
Protein Group, we are placing our
emphasis on increasing top-line growth
and margins in processed meat and the
chilled meals market, which is growing
at a rate of over 20%. First, we are
investing to establish a low cost, efficient
manufacturing and distribution network
with the capacity to support growth.
In 2007 this involved the construction
or expansion of five plants/distribution
centres and the closure of four sub-scale
meat processing facilities. Last year over
31% of our capital investment was in
this business. Second, we are vastly
accelerating our innovation goals.
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