Food & Beverage Cluster

By: Shawna Moore

MRK 625MT

Family Day

On February 18th 2008, Ontario spent millions of dollars in wages for the new statutory holiday.  The media has been speculating that it will increase the sales for small businesses but in real facts, it will be more costly for these restaurants to be open on February 18th.

The Billion Dollar Cluster

Each year in Ontario, Toronto dominates with the Food and Beverage cluster generating what has been reported as over $17 billion dollars.  More than half of all of the food processing done in Ontario is done in the GTA.

Within Toronto alone, there are over 2000 careers currently in this field, but with the annual growth rate being between 4-5% each year; more and more people are becoming involved in what I like to call “The Billion Dollar Cluster”.

Hamilton: Food & Beverage Industry Profile

“Hamilton’s food and beverage sector are part of the North America’s second largest and fastest growing food cluster.  With access to a marketplace of over 130 million people within a day’s drive, businesses benefit from direct connections to major highways and rail networks both in Ontario and the United States.  The port of Hamilton also links Canada’s heartland to the St. Lawrence Seaway.”  This is an excerpt from the Hamilton Food and Beverage Industry Profile.  It is very interesting to see how a not very spoken about city is one of the key players in the food and beverage cluster market.  Check out this link to view the Pdf for the Industry Profile.

Who’s Who in the Industry

FMI…This stands for Food Marketing Institute.  The FMI is a business that carries out research, education and public programs for businesses in the food industry.  While I was researching this company online I was able to come across their mission statement as said on their official webpage,

 FMI’s Mission Statement:Representing food retailers and wholesalers, the Food Marketing Institute

develops and promotes policies, programs and forums supporting its members, and their customers, in the areas of:

 Government Relations Food Safety and Defence Public and Consumer Information Research and Education Industry Cooperation  By pursuing these activities, the Food Marketing Institute will provide

leadership and advocacy for the food distribution industry worldwide as the industry innovates to meet the needs of changing consumers.

Advertising that Children are Faced With

In 2007 the FTC issued a report stating that children today are not seeing any more advertisements than they were seeing in 1977.  The only difference between the two times, is the concentration of advertisements surrounding childrens programming compared to the majority of the advertisements being placed for the general audience programming.  What do you think?  Do you think that the majority of children are faced with more in your face advertisements? Should they be stopped?  How should we stop this?

Cutting Edge Drink Tycoons

The following article speaks towards Coca-Cola being a major player in the beverage industry.  With the advances that they are making towards capturing the top spot in each of their markets Coca-Cola never seems to let up on the new cutting edge product developments.  Check out this article and let me know what you think about the way that Coca-Cola is handling themselves.

NRA Show 2008

The National Restaurant Association show will be held on May 17-20, 2008 in McCormick Place, Chicago.  This show is a place for any person to go to that is looking at being able to find out what the new cutting edge product offerings are in the restaurant industry today.  Some of the special events that are going to be taking place are:

Ice Carving Competition Chef Day Restaurant Executive Breakfast National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation

20th Annual Salute to Excellence 2008 Spirit Awards and FMP® Recognition Breakfast 2008 Hennessy/Hill Awards Breakfast Ask The Design Experts

Canadian Food Industry Report 2008

The first annual Canadian Food Industry Report includes a comprehensive sector-by-sector snapshot of Canadian food and beverage processing and manufacturing industry performance and innovation.  Key industry categories are covered including; the snack and baked good sector, meat sector, dairy sector, confectionary sector, fruit and vegetable processing sector, beverage sector and seafood sector.   This report features up to date statistics on sector performance, expert analysis and commentary plus an overview of the year’s key food trends, new technologies and other industry highlights.

Food Cluster Leaders (Toronto)

In the Food and Beverage cluster of the GTA the cluster leaders are as follows:                                                                   

Cadbury Schweppes     http://www.cadburyschweppes.com/      

Campbell Soup Company Limited    

http://www.campbellsoup.ca

Cargill Limited   http://www.cargill.ca/     

Fiera Foods Company  

http://www.fierafoods.com/   

  Kraft Canada Inc. 

 Maple Leaf Foods      

http://www.kraft.com/ http://www.mapleleaf.com/

Nestle Canada    http://www.nestle.ca/

   

Unilever Canada Limited 

http://www.unilever.ca/ 

Weston Bakeries Limited  http://www.gwbakeries.com/  

Wrigley’s Canada  http://www.wrigley.com/

Red Bull Adds Energy to the Cola Wars

Red Bull is doing their best to remain competitive with all of the soft drink producers that are currently in the market.  This article that was released on March 25, 2008.  The article says that Las Vegas will be where Red Bull launches its first cola beverage. Unlike its other counter parts Pepsi and Coke, Red Bull is created from completely natural and organic means.  Check out this link to read more about this article:

Sink or Swim

With the economy taking a turn for the worst, how are all the restaurants going to be able to maintain their operations.  In a report that was released today the restaurant owners have recorded positive sales for the first time in months, but are optimistic of what the future has in store for them with the economy continuing to evolve the way that it is. 26% of business owners polled recorded that the economy was the toughest challenge that they saw in the up coming future, while only 19% recorded the high cost of food.

What do you think will happen?  Will dinning out become a thing of the past?  Will many businesses be forced to close their doors due to low flow of traffic?  Will you be dinning out?

Significant Advantages for Toronto Clusters

Toronto is a major North American hub for trucking, rail and air.  Toronto has access to a very large regional market of over 6 million people, which is matched in size and concentration by only three other urban centers in North America.  Toronto is affluent and cosmopolitan market that is open to innovation.  Its myriad of ethnic groups means that there is a ready market for specialty products made locally.

The average Toronto cost advantage is 5.5% in food processing. Real estate in Toronto is 68% cheaper than in some U.S. cities and the province’s commitment to lower corporate taxes will further distinguish Toronto from our major U.S. competitors.

Occupations I Food and Beverage Service

In the food and beverage industry today potential workers can expect to make $10.23 per hour while the national hourly wage is $18.07.   If you look at the diagram below you will see that there is no real incentive for workers to enter into this industry, they will have better opportunities working in other industries making more money.

Canada’s Snack Food Industry

Canada’s snack food industry includes manufacturers of potato chips, corn chips, popped popcorn, pretzels, extruded cheese snacks, seed snacks, mixed nuts, peanuts and peanut butter, as well as pork rinds.

Production facilities which make snack food products range in size from small, one or two person operations, to large plants employing up to 550 people.  In total, the snack food industry employed 7,547 people in 2003.

In 2003 the snack food industry accounted for 2.2 percent of the total value of the food and beverage shipments, 2.8 percent of employment in the food and beverage sector, and 1.5 percent of the food and beverage establishments (plants).

Canada’s Food and Beverage Industry Unveils Integrated Children focused Initiatives:

“Toronto, ON., April 16 - Today Canada’s food and beverage industry announced three significant initiatives that will affect the landscape for advertising and marketing directed to children under 12. Joined by the Minister of Health, the Hon. Tony Clement, Concerned Children’s Advertisers (CCA), Food & Consumer Products of Canada (FCPC) and Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) laid out the unique, integrated approach Canada is taking to help children and their families make wise choices related to healthy eating and active living.

 Among today’s announcements is the launch of a new social marketing initiative developed by CCA, which includes two new Long Live Kids television PSAs addressing healthy eating and physical activity.

Under the new Canadian Children’s Food & Beverage Advertising Initiative, 15 leading Canadian food and beverage companies will devote at least 50 per cent of their ads directed to children under 12 toward the promotion of healthy dietary choices and/or active living messages. In support of this industry has announced that it will create a transparent, accountable compliance auditing process whereby Advertising Standards Canada, the independent advertising self-regulatory body, will publish the commitments made by the participating companies, audit their compliance and publicly report on the results on an annual basis.

Additionally, new interpretation guidelines for children’s food and beverage advertising have been added to the Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children and the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.”(