InBev Bid for Anheuser May Leave Bitter Aftertaste

 

InBev Could Run Risk of Alienating Workers, Politicians

 

Investors have been giddy about the prospect of InBev NV buying Anheuser-Busch Cos., but it could be a lot harder for the Belgian company to swallow the King of Beers than many imagine.

A host of factors could derail a bid: the cultural differences between the two brewers; potential unrest from Anheuser employees and distributors; and even protests by politicians over foreign ownership of a U.S. icon during an election year.

"We would like to see it remain an American company," says Teamsters Vice President Jack Cipriani, who is director of the union's brewer and soft-drink workers' conference. "It doesn't seem that employees fare well when foreign suitors buy American breweries."

The union, which represents about 7,500 of Anheuser's 30,000 employees, could turn to its own political ally: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the likely Democratic presidential nominee whom the union endorsed earlier this year.

InBev, the maker of Labatt Blue and Beck's, is studying a possible takeover bid, people familiar with the matter say. Anheuser's management is cool to the idea of any deal with InBev, people close to the St. Louis brewer say, which could require InBev to pay a hefty premium. A deal probably would top $45 billion, or $63 a share, analysts say. Anheuser shares were up 14 cents to $56.75 Tuesday in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading. In Brussels, InBev shares were at €47 ($74.13), down 90 European cents, or 1.9%.

Wall Street analysts say Anheuser is likely to strenuously resist any approach by InBev, whether friendly or hostile, which in turn could raise the price for the maker of Budweiser to as much as $70 a share. Anheuser and InBev declined to comment.

If the price went that high, InBev would need to wring steep cost cuts out of Anheuser to make the combination financially viable, possibly slashing expenses by more than $1 billion over a few years. That could mean sharp reductions in Anheuser's marketing budget and large numbers of layoffs, analysts say.

Though Anheuser's board of directors has been loyal to the Busch family, the board also includes independent directors with records as deal makers, including former AT&T Inc. Chief Executive Edward E. Whitacre Jr. and former J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Chairman Douglas A. Warner III. Their presence, coupled with shareholder pressure to accept an offer at a high premium, could help InBev overcome board opposition if it decides to pursue a deal.

InBev, the world's second-largest brewer by volume after SABMiller PLC, is no stranger to buying companies and then making deep cost cuts. That approach could be risky at Anheuser, a 150-year-old company whose success has been built partly on paying top dollar for everything from malted barley to television ads.

Anheuser thinks "if it's good to send one marketing person to a meeting, it's even better to send five," says Harry Schuhmacher, editor of the industry newsletter Beer Business Daily.

Bill Pecoriello, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, says if InBev slashed Anheuser's marketing budget, it could hurt sales of its big U.S. brands, such as Bud Light and Michelob Ultra. Unlike many developing countries where InBev operates, the U.S. beer market is growing slowly and competition is brutal, he adds. That means marketing dollars spent on billboards, bar posters or store displays can be crucial to wooing drinkers.

Carlos Brito, chief executive of InBev, of Leuven, Belgium, is an aggressive cost cutter who may be willing to take his chances with Anheuser.

"They look at Anheuser-Busch and they see a lot of waste," says Marc Leemans, an analyst with Bank Degroof. "Their focus...will be to get rid of the fat."

InBev's tough approach with its unionized work force in Belgium has triggered protests and strikes over longer work hours, layoffs and plans to shut one of its main breweries. The company's response has been to seek compromise, except in the area of cutting jobs. InBev has laid off more than 350 people in five European countries since 2004.

Marianne Amssoms, an InBev spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the total number employed by InBev has risen over the years. She also said the company "never fails to support our leading brands in a way that benefits the consumer." InBev is more efficiently managed than Anheuser, says Anant Sundaram, a finance professor at Dartmouth College. InBev's operating margin is 27%, versus 17% for Anheuser.

In an election year, the transaction could become a political flash point. The economic slowdown and job losses have prompted candidates to question unfettered free trade and outsourcing. A takeover of the biggest U.S. brewer could lead to a popular outcry.

To blunt political opposition, InBev might try to make a takeover more palatable, such as by naming the new company Anheuser-Busch or putting members of the Busch family on the board. A combination of InBev and Anheuser would be unlikely to raise antitrust concerns because InBev has a tiny share of the U.S. market and Anheuser imports and markets about 20 of InBev's brands.

“More Wow”: Unilever Chairman Michael Treschow

There is a no-nonsense edge to this affable Swede, who has a passion for innovation and delivery at Unilever

 

Michael Treschow thinks there is not enough “wow” at Unilever.

The Swedish chairman likes inventions, gadgets and new whizz-bang things. He has been in his job for a year and, after a shake-up and streamlining of the top team at the Anglo-Dutch food and soap company, he wants the men in white coats to work faster, creating an assembly line of new products.

The marketing is good, the selling is good, it's the product line that needs attention, he says. “The single most important thing is that we speed up our innovation machine, which means that we bring more highly appreciated products to the consumer so that they say, ‘Wow, this is really something I would like to have',” he says.

There is a “wow” object prominently displayed in the meeting room at Mr Treschow's headquarters, his penthouse office suite in the heart of Stockholm. It is a curious shiny metal pod in lime green that turns out to be an Electrolux refrigerator.

Mr Treschow spent a decade at the Swedish white goods firm, first as chief executive, then chairman, and he played a big role in promoting innovation in an effort to rescue Electrolux from a tide of cheap Asian household appliances.

There were robot vacuum cleaners and “smart” refrigerators with screens to notify you at work that the milk was running low. Not all of the new gadgetry was successful.

It is all very well talking up innovation at an appliance firm, but what is the point when your products are as basic as food and shampoo. Isn't rice just rice?

Mr Treschow demurs. “In Italy, there are many risottos,” he says. You can bring innovation to any product, from ice-cream and mayonnaise to shampoo and deodorant, and the point of all the myriad variations in flavours, fragrances and presentation is to bring more customers to the table.

Then there are the blank spaces on Unilever's consumer map.

Mr Treschow points to one of the big conundrums facing personal product manufacturers: “How can you convince the Asians to use deodorant? There are a couple of billion there not using deodorant. It's not good enough to say, ‘Guys, use a deodorant'. You have to figure out the key that says, 'I want to do that as well'.”

The new Unilever chairman is a technologist, an engineer by training and career - for a long time he ran Atlas Copco, the Swedish machine tool maker. But he also seems to understand that, for a company that makes a living selling millions of little things, the only point of innovation is to be able to sell the little things to many more millions of people who did not realise that they wanted to have those little things in the first place.

Mr Treschow says: “Asians prefer to make their own soup; they don't buy ready soup. How can you make a platter of components to make it easier to make soup?”

Asia is the great battleground for Unilever in its never-ending war with its multinational arch rivals, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble.

That war intensified four years ago when Unilever issued a profit warning. After heavy restructuring under Niall Fitzgerald and Antony Burgmans, the former co-chairmen, Unilever revamped its portfolio with a series of big acquisitions but sales were still faltering.

Procter & Gamble launched a vicious price war, using its colossal resources to attack Unilever's businesses in India and Brazil. In the end, P&G failed to gain much ground but the attacks were costly for Unilever's margins - the company was forced to spend heavily to defend its markets.

Its motor began to stutter; shareholders worried it might stall. Whisperers said the Anglo-Dutch firm was sluggish, slow to adapt, in thrall to an outmoded colonial way of doing business, bureaucratic and top-heavy.

In 2005 Patrick Cescau, a Unilever lifer and previously its financial director, replaced Mr Fitzgerald as sole chief executive, a signal that the Anglo-Dutch dual management structure had ended.

He launched an internal campaign - One Unilever - and began eliminating duplication, shortening managerial reporting lines and abolishing national head offices.

Last year another round of restructuring was announced with 20,000 job losses but, in strategic terms, the more significant changes have been at head office. Without much fanfare, Mr Cescau has gathered all his lieutenants about him in London, establishing the rebuilt Unilever offices at Blackfriars as the de facto global headquarters.

Rotterdam, the other head office, has been relegated to the status of European divisional headquarters with a treasury operation attached.

Another Cescau bombshell was the decision to combine Unilever's food business with the home and personal care businesses under the leadership of Vindi Banga.

At a stroke, Mr Cescau put an end, at least for management purposes, to the split through the middle of Unilever that has dogged the company in discussions with outsiders and prompted the tiresome question: when will you demerge into separate food and soap companies?

The new chairman seems to find these eternal Unilever questions, such as the future of the dual-listed structure, uninteresting. There is no problem, he says.

Every board meeting is preceded with his announcement that it is really two board meetings, one Dutch and one British.

“That is for the secretary to deal with. If we cannot run it efficiently and we have to do a lot of duplication, then we have to address it. Otherwise, I don't have a problem. I make a joke: the headquarters is where I am.”

Mr Treschow has a no-nonsense streak that is probably the key reason why he got the job. Like many Swedes, he has an easygoing and affable Nordic manner, but in his case it may be deceptive. Senior Unilever staff at HQ would be unwise to treat him as a pushover. His tenure running Electrolux was characterised by massive upheaval and, later, at Ericsson, he presided over more turmoil during which the telecoms manufacturer's staff was reduced from 110,000 to 50,000 in two years, earning him the sobriquet “Mike the Knife”.

Fortunately for the troops at Unilever, most of the slashing and burning has been done, for the time being, at least. Moreover, Mr Treschow does not think it is his job to rush around closing factories. He has a clear idea of what a non-executive board should and should not do, and his definition of his role seems to be more of a warning to the executives than to the rank and file.

Boards are judge and jury in Mr Treschow's view and woe betide executives who do not deliver what they promised.

“It is management that gives proposals,” he says. “If we are not happy with the proposals, we ask for new proposals. It is in your court, you come up with proposals. If we are not happy, we ask for new directions or higher ambitions. We will continue asking until we are happy and then you have to deliver what you said you wanted to do.”

A Treschow boardroom sounds like the man himself - polite, affable but with a rod of steel under the table. “We can ask why you didn't deliver. That is what we call the assessment ... if we are not happy about either the direction or the result, then we have to find another you,” he says.

The new head of the Unilever board has no time for the grandstanding chairman: “We have to make sure there is never uncertainty about the roles and uncertainty about who runs the company, uncertainty who speaks for the company.”

It sounds like an implicit criticism of past board structures at Unilever, where dual chairmen and chief executives jostled for position and a place in the limelight. It was no secret that Mr Fitzgerald, an ebullient Irishman who revelled in the celebrity of leadership, had a difficult relationship with his board and his co-chairman, Antony Burgmans.

Mr Treschow is a creature of a more pragmatic, American corporate culture than that of Unilever, which might be perceived among some in Unilever as a bit clinical, an efficient Swedish machine.

With Mr Treschow, there is something akin to another talented Swede, the tennis player Bjorn Borg, who in his heyday obliterated opponents with regular deliberate and well-aimed volleys from the baseline. However, when asked to discuss the game of tennis, Borg was less than animated.

Mr Treschow admits that he worried on joining the company that it would prove difficult to fathom.

“The biggest fear is that you don't really get a grasp, it's too complicated to define the drivers, so you sit like a spectator or a reviewer rather than being a true part of it,” he says.

However, he quickly noticed that Unilever's multinational culture, which Mr Treschow believes is a strength, brought with it a tendency to overanalyse and lacked an ability to execute a new strategy with rapid efficiency.

He spent several years in the US and he notes that the American style of management is “very disciplined, very hierarchical and very focused”. Americans are good at solving problems but spend less time on vision and strategy, he says, while Europeans tend to discuss things a lot and seek consensus.

Mr Treschow admits that Unilever is more of a discussion culture, and you get the impression he thinks the discussion can go on for too long.

“I don't mind brainstorming, but brainstorming has its place,” he says. “Which means once that is finished - let's get on with the business, let's get on with what we decided to do and let's deliver.

In business, it's about delivery, get the things done that you have planned or discussed. In my experience of 35 years in business, that is what is most difficult.”

That must be a warning to those charged with delivering the goods but Mr Treschow seems genuinely impressed with the breadth of the Unilever world, its portfolio of brands and its potential, and he wants to broaden it by bringing more talent to the fore.

Having arrived as a Swede at the top of an Anglo-Dutch company run by an executive team that includes a Frenchman, two Indians and an American, Mr Treschow is not satisfied.

“We have too little diversity in Unilever, too few women,” he says. “There are nationalities that we lack in the management structure. We need to get more Asians, more Asian women.

"You need to work on trying to groom diversity. You want to create a culture that everyone can reach the top. I feel that Unilever is one of the few companies where that is possible.”

CV

Michael Treschow was born in 1943 in Helsingborg, Sweden.

He gained a master's degree in engineering from the Institute of Technology at Lund and spent 22 years working his way up the ranks of Atlas Copco, the Swedish engineering company.

During that period he spent three years as an area manager in the United States and, before that, a year in a French operation, eventually rising to president and chief executive. From then on, Mr Treschow has held a series of senior positions and directorships in some of the leading Swedish enterprises, many connected to Investor, the Swedish fund controlled by the Wallenberg family.

In 1997 he became chief executive of Electrolux and embarked on a significant restructuring of the company. From 2004 to 2007 he was chairman of Electrolux.

He became chairman of Unilever in May last year.

He has been the chairman of Ericsson since 2002, and he has previously held non-executive directorships with Investor, Saab Automobiles and SKF.

At present he is chairman of the Confederation of Swedish Industry but will stand down from that position at the end of this month.

He lives in Stockholm with his wife, who is a member of the Wallenberg family, and their two children.

Pepsi’s Indra Nooyi on Leadership

Indra Nooyi is one of the most powerful women in world business. First as CFO then as chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, she’s restructured the US food and drinks giant.

Excerpts from Simon Hobbs interviews Indra Nooyi, CEO and chairman of American giant PepsiCo

How do you define leadership?
Indra Nooyi: Leadership is hard to define and good leadership even harder. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader. As a leader, I am tough on myself and I raise the standard for everybody; however, I am very caring because I want people to excel at what they are doing so that they can aspire to be me in the future.

What sort of upbringing did you have?
IN: A conservative, south Indian upbringing but there were a lot of contrasts – I grew up in a Hindu household but went to a Roman Catholic school. I grew up with a mother who said, “I’ll arrange a marriage for you at 18” but she also said that we could achieve anything we put our minds to an encourage us to dream of becoming prime minister or president. She made me learn Indian classical music because that’s what good Indian girls did, but she also let me be in a rock band. “You’ve got to be a good Indian woman first,” she said, “but go ahead and dream.”

By 19, you weren’t married, you graduated with a degree in Chemistry, Physics and Maths from Madras Christian College, and then you went into the Indian Institute of Management ,Calcutta. Did you know what path you were going to take and why weren’t you married?
IN: Well, there were a lot of proposals! But the good news was that my elder sister refused to get married straight away and I couldn’t get married until she did so I had the licence to go off and dream. I asked my parents for permission to study in America and they were so sure that I wouldn’t get in and get a scholarship that they encouraged me to try. So I applied to Yale and got an excellent scholarship. I then worked for the Boston Consulting Group for six and half years. Every year in consulting is like three years in the corporate world because you have multiple clients, multiple issues – you grow so much.

Is it true that in 1994 you were due to work for GE when you were poached by PepsiCo?
IN: Wayne Calloway, who was both the CEO of PepsiCo and a board member of GE said that while he commended me for thinking of working with GE – a truly great company in his estimation – he wanted me to consider PepsiCo because its need for me was greater, that there was no one like me at PepsiCo.

What did you offer that PepsiCo did not already have?
IN: PepsiCo did not have a woman in the senior ranks, nor a foreign-born person who was willing to think differently.

Over seven years, you restructured the business phenomenally, selling off restaurant chains such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC and reduced the size of the group by about a third. Why did they have to go?
IN: Two months after I joined the company, the restaurant business ran into trouble and we realised that we were imposing a packaged goods culture on a service industry. Once the strategic analysis was done objectively, rigorously and presented without emotion it was easy to make the decision to unfetter the restaurants. The process was emotional because we had to separate people who grew up with PepsiCo and put them into a new company but people accepted the decision intellectually and said, “let’s get on with it”.

The CEO, Roger Enrico, promoted you to CFO in 2001. He’s now the Chairman of Dreamworks and said recently that you are the best negotiator that he’s seen in his life. What is your key to negotiation?
IN: I’m very honest – brutally honest. I always look at things from their point of view as well as mine. And I know when to walk away.

When you became CFO, some people had doubts as you lacked operational experience.
IN: Simon, when I sit down to do a job, I never think, “what’s my next job?” I set out to do this job better than anyone else possibly could. And there are so many people with operational skills, but tell me how many people there are out there with real strategic skills?

How did you feel in 2006 when you became the company’s fifth CEO?
IN: It was overwhelming, honestly. Incredible privilege and incredible responsibility. I realised I was going from a quasi-private person to a completely public figure. People build you up too fast and they have to realise that I’m human.

What are you like as a manager in daily life? I hear you cross-examine employees’ spouses.
IN: Look, I don’t want people’s questions about PepsiCo to be silences by people’s employee husbands or wives. I want them to be able to talk to me. I want them to look upon themselves as PepsiCo employees, too, because they are the extended family.

You have said that leaving behind a corporate legacy is almost an obsession, but that you also used to wake up feeling guilty about everything.
IN: Having a husband, being an Indian daughter and daughter-in-law – all of them have pressures. The guilt consumed me for a long time because I felt I wasn’t good at everything and people like me want to be outstanding at everything. Three years ago I decided to park all the guilt behind me because I decided to do the best that I could rather than be superb at everything. Because I can’t. There is always a series of sacrifices in business, especially for women.

What have you done for women in business that could be replicated elsewhere?
IN: We created a very specific diversity and inclusion programme. We set goals and time frames and held people accountable for getting to them. The first step was getting people in, but that’s only half the problem because if they then leave it’s more painful for the organisation. Step two is inclusion. For example, if a woman says something, don’t immediately interpret it as if a man said it, or expect a woman to react to a comment in the same way as a man. You will have a different dynamic with women, African-Americans or Latinos because each group is a product of their socio-economic culture.

Is the culture you’ve created more important overall, then, say, a maternity deal?
IN: It’s a holistic package. The biggest challenge is figuring out how to accommodate women or people with special needs in the workforce without overburdening those who have to compensate. We know the problem, but we’re still trying to find the solution.

You’ve said that you might like to join Washington politics in the future – what contribution would you most like to make?
IN: Well, let’s be clear about this. I’ve not said that I want to join Washington politics, but at some point, I’d like to give back to the country.

From your point of view, what would be more significant – the US having its first woman president or first African-American president.
IN: Ah, well! Both would be frame-breaking but having the best president will be best for the US, regardless of gender or race.

Febreze to hit $1B mark

It took some new uses to turn Procter & Gamble Co.'s Febreze into a brand now within whiffing distance of the billion-dollar annual sales milestone.

After its first few years on the market, people weren't using the original fabric odor spray all that often, and sales were flattening. But researchers then realized people were already trying out the spray in other ways in their homes.

That led to new Febreze products — air fresheners, plug-in scents, candles and team-ups with P&G detergents and household cleaners. Marking its 10th anniversary, Febreze has more changes ahead this summer, backed by stepped-up marketing.

Its story is an example of how household products companies first build an image, then a brand.

"You get a connection with the consumer, in terms of understanding what the brand is and more importantly, what it stands for," said Bruce Cohen, a strategist for the retail consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates. "It needs to stand for something distinctive and authentic in the consumer's mind."

Example: People connect V8, the vegetable juice, with something healthy and nutritious. So, Cohen said, Campbell Soup Co.'s subsequent line of V8 soup doesn't need much explanation or introduction.

Same with the Clorox Co.'s namesake bleach, immediately associated in many consumers' minds with clean and disinfecting, leading to products such as household wipes and toilet bowl cleaners.

"That connection allows them to develop new products ... the consumer gives you permission," Cohen said. "That's the secret sauce."

In Febreze's case, he said, the brand reminds people of "a fresh-smelling, clean home."

Martin Hettich, P&G's air care market director for North America, recently previewed for The Associated Press Febreze plans that include a combined fabric/air freshener in a more-stylish bottle, with an easier-to-use pump that sprays a finer mist than previous models.

And he recounted that, after a fast start in 1998 that saw Febreze quickly top $100 million in sales, then slowed, researchers decided the next move by visiting consumers in their homes, sitting on their sofas, and watching.

"They were using their fabric refresher in a way it was not designed for at that point," Hettich said. "They were using it for a little spritz in the air; using it in a surround way."

Entry into the air freshener market followed in 2004, with a campaign touting Febreze as "a breath of fresh air." The brand saw a 27 percent sales increase, and it's maintained 20-plus percent annual growth rates as its product line has expanded.

P&G says Febreze now leads both the fabric spray and the aerosol spray categories and is the second-leading air care brand behind Glade. Spokeswoman Pashen Black of Racine, Wis.-based SC Johnson, maker of Glade, said the privately held company wouldn't discuss competitive rankings.

Febreze, with more than $800 million in annual sales, has been added to other P&G products, including Tide detergent and Swiffer dusters. Those brands count the additional sales in their own revenue figures; otherwise, Hettich said, Febreze would already top $1 billion, joining 23 other P&G brands including Tide and Pampers diapers and becoming one of the fastest to reach the mark.

Febreze also has begun licensing products outside P&G.

E-Z DO Inc., an Edison, N.J.-based closet innovation company, and Brandscape LLC, an Atlanta-based product development and marketing firm, have a joint venture through Febreze. They are rolling out Febreze Closet Renewable freshening products through retailers that include Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and Target Corp., said Brandscape head Nick McKay.

The reach into additional households will enhance Febreze recognition, along with what Hettich says will be the biggest advertising campaign in brand history this summer.

He said the current economic slowdown isn't hurting sales:

"What we're finding is that people are cutting down on their trips to the mall, they're eating out less; by virtue of spending more time in their home, they actually want to make sure their homes smell nicer."

i2 Technologies Names New CEO

i2 Technologies Inc. announces that its board of directors names Dr. Pallab K. Chatterjee as chief executive officer (CEO). Chatterjee has been the company’s interim CEO since July of 2007. During Chatterjee’s tenure as interim CEO, i2 recorded two consecutive quarters of growth in total bookings and posted the company’s highest total quarterly bookings in the last three years. A new sales execution model coupled with new services lines for the company’s Total Supply Chain Management approach have driven these results and increased backlog under Chatterjee's leadership. Additionally, the company has delivered positive cash flow across this period.  Chatterjee joined i2 in January 2000 as chief operating officer and held numerous i2 leadership positions before assuming the role of executive vice president, Solutions Operations and chief delivery officer. During his tenure, Chatterjee has been integral to some of i2’s top sales and services efforts, including the company’s Supply Chain Leaders initiative. He has also been responsible for i2’s India operations, service delivery, and research and development. He has led i2 teams and key customers, including many of the Fortune 500, through supply chain transformations around the world.   Prior to joining i2, Chatterjee served in several key executive officer positions with Texas Instruments, including president of the company’s $1 billion Personal Productivity Products division, and senior vice president and chief information officer.

HP to Acquire EDS for $13.9 Billion

HP and EDS sign a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase EDS at a price of $25.00 per share, or an enterprise value of approximately $13.9 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of calendar year 2008 and more than double HP's services revenue. Combined, the companies’ services businesses had annual revenues of more than $38 billion as of the end of each company's 2007 fiscal year. According to AMR Research Analysts Dana Stiffler and Phil Fersht, the combination of the HP and EDS services would create the second largest IT and business services company in the world. “EDS, at approximately $22 billion in 2007 revenue, combining with HP at nearly $16.6 billion, makes for a big, deep services play,” say Stiffler and Fersht. “This falls short of spitting distance of IBM ($54 billion in services revenue), but certainly makes for a more interesting playing field in IT services. The trick is for both giants to be nimble enough to go after mega and midsize deals against the Indian services providers, which are increasingly competitive with all forms of multinational providers, particularly in application services.” Terms of the transaction have been unanimously approved by the HP and EDS boards of directors. HP intends to establish a new business group, to be branded EDS - an HP company, which will be headquartered at EDS's existing executive offices in Plano, Texas. EDS will continue to be led by EDS Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Ronald A. Rittenmeyer, who will join HP's executive council and report to Mark Hurd, HP's chairman and chief executive officer. The specific service offerings delivered by the combined companies are: IT outsourcing, including data center services, workplace services, networking services and managed security; business process outsourcing, including health claims, financial processing, CRM and HR outsourcing; applications, including development, modernization and management; consulting and integration; and technology services.

Del Monte Foods appoints William Pearce Chief Marketing Officer

Del Monte Foods Co., which produces and distributes food and pet products, said Wednesday it appointed William D. Pearce as senior vice president and chief marketing officer, effective immediately.

Pearce, 45, previously served as chief marketing officer at Taco Bell, which is owned by Yum Brands Inc.

The position is a newly created, the company said. Apurva Mody, senior vice president of consumer products, and Jeff Watters, senior vice president of pet products, will leave Del Monte after a transition period.

The company also said it will centralize all marketing functions in San Francisco, relocating about 100 marketing positions from Pittsburgh to San Francisco.

The relocation is expected to be completed in about a year. The company said it will begin saving costs annually from the move in fiscal 2010.

JM Smucker Buys ConAgra Foods' Knott's Berry Farm Brand

J.M. Smucker Co. bought ConAgra Foods Inc.'s  Knott's Berry Farm food brand, a maker of jams, jellies, preserves and gift boxes.

Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

The acquisition doesn't include the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park, which isn't owned by ConAgra's Knott's Berry Farm.

ConAgra said the sale won't affect its full-year 2009 sales and profit growth expectations. J.M. Smucker expects the deal to add about $40 million in annual sales to its portfolio.

Production will be transition to J.M. Smucker's manufacturing facilities over the next four months.

Walgreen taps Wade Miquelon as CFO from Tyson

 

Walgreen Inc. has hired Tyson Foods Inc. executive Wade D. Miquelon to serve as senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Deerfield drugstore chain, effective June 16.

As CFO at Walgreen, the 43-year-old Miquelon succeeds William Rudolphsen, 53, who Walgreen said has been named to the new post of senior vice president and chief risk officer.

Before joining Arkansas-based chicken processor Tyson in 2006, Miquelon spent 17 years with consumer-goods giant Procter & Gamble in a variety of executive posts.

As CFO, he will oversee the company's accounting, tax and treasury functions.

 

Rudolphsen, a 31-year Walgreen veteran who becomes the company's first chief risk officer, will continue to report to Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey A. Rein while overseeing the company's audit, loss-prevention, compliance and enterprise-risk management functions. He assumed the chief financial officer job in 2004.

"The CRO position is fast becoming a best practice among large companies," Rein said. "Given our size, complexity and the highly regulated industry in which we operate, separating the financial and audit functions and increasing our focus on risk identification and mitigation is a prudent move."

Coke In Letter Of Intent To Buy Denmark, Finland Brands

Coca-Cola Co. has signed a letter of intent to buy some water and energy drink brands in Denmark and Finland from regional bottling partner Carlsberg A/S.

Coke said in an internal memo that it had signed the letter of intent to acquire from Carlsberg the trademark and other brand-owner rights to water brands Kildevaeld, Kurvand and Ramlosa in Denmark and the soft drink Hyvaa Paivaa and energy drink Battery in Finland.