Industry Developments

Mexican bakery giant Grupo Bimbo has completed the purchase of Argentina's largest baking company, Fargo. Bimbo previously owned 30% of the firm and has received approval to take full... 2011-09-22

US food producer ConAgra has dropped its bid for US private label specialist Ralcorp Holdings after the firm refused to enter into negotiations over its US$5.18bn offer. Ralcorp maintains... 2011-09-21

Consolidation in the Mexican soft drinks sector rolls on with Coca-Cola Femsa announcing it is to acquire rival Coca-Cola bottled Grupo Cimsa in a deal worth MXN11bn (US$830mn). The... 2011-09-20

Chile's third largest supermarket operator Grupo SMU has announced it is to acquire smaller rival Supermercados del Sur. Full terms of the deal have not been disclosed, although SMU... 2011-09-19

The latest results from Canadian retailers suggest that the consumer market continues to be something of an outperformer in terms of developed states. This is reflected in the strong... 2011-09-16

PepsiCo has announced the acquisition of Argentine biscuit and cracker producer Dilexis for an undisclosed price. Dilexis is reported to have revenue of approximately US$100mn, with... 2011-09-15

The latest results from Kroger, the second largest US grocery retailer by volume, support our recent suggestion that consumer spending is currently better than would be suggested by... 2011-09-12

Marcel Smits, the CEO of US food group Sara Lee, has revealed that the firm has received 'some incoming calls' from parties interested in acquiring its coffee business, which is due... 2011-09-09

Chile's second-largest grocery retailer by market share Cencosud can look forward to the next few years. Increasingly well-positioned in Latin America and in particular Brazil, it is... 2011-09-08

US food producers Heinz and Campbell's Soup have posted contrasting results for their latest financial quarters. For the first quarter (ending July 27) of its financial year Heinz was... 2011-09-08