Page 5 - Food & Drink Magazine March 2021

NEWS
Bega wins trademark rights
THE Victorian Supreme Court has ruled Bega Cheese is permitted to use the Bega trademark on products outside the scope of the ongoing licence Fonterra has for Bega branded cheese and butter products.
In 2017, Fonterra
commenced proceedings
challenging Bega Cheese’s
right to use Bega
trademarks. The ruling
means Bega Cheese is
entitled to use the Bega trademark on products outside the scope of those licensed products, including peanut butter.
This is the second court proceeding regarding Bega’s peanut butter products.
In November 2020, Bega won a case against Kraft Heinz Australia, which had argued Bega rebranding Kraft Peanut Butter with its moniker was a violation of its intellectual property rights. In 2017, Bega purchased the Kraft factory – where the category-leading product was made
– from Mondēlez International as part of its $460 million acquisition of most of Mondēlez’s ANZ grocery business, including Vegemite, cheese, and mayonnaise.
The High Court of Australia ruled Bega had
the right to use the current packaging of its smooth and crunchy peanut butter products. It dismissed Kraft Heinz’s Application for Special Leave to appeal to the High Court, which meant the decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia handed down in April 2020, would stand.
Bega’s peanut butter products are the star performer in Bega’s portfolio. In its 1H FY21 results, Bega’s Simply Nuts brand grew to a 21.2 per cent share of the natural peanut butter segment, growing 104 per cent on the prior comparative period.
Core Bega peanut butter continued its strong growth, holding 82 per cent share of total core peanut butter and growing 15.8 per cent.
Patties’ leaseback plan
✷ TOP HITS
THE MOST VIEWED STORIES ON OUR WEBSITE LAST MONTH
DENNIS LILLEE
BOWLS AGAIN
Our story in the Jan/Feb issue on Dennis Lillee’s partnership with Scotchman’s Hill winery to launch a new wine label in India and Sri Lanka was a big hit.
WHAT THE
EXPERTS SAY
Also from our Jan/Feb issue, readers were keen to find out what industry experts thought about the road ahead for their business.
ARNOTT’S DIVING IN
Arnott’s second acquisition in the cereals and snacks space piqued readers’ interest.
✷ SEE MORE ON P6
WOOLIES’ REALLY
BIG SHED
Construction of the latest massive distribution centre for Woolworths has begun in Queensland.
✷ SEE MORE ON P7
FUNCH GOES TO CHINA
Baby food brand Funch has launched its Tmall Global store to sell directly to Chinese consumers. Tmall Global is owned by the Alibaba Group and is China’s largest cross-border marketplace.
SANITARIUM JOINS CRC
The health food company has signed up to the Future Food Systems CRC and is working with UNSW on enhancing the foaming capabilities of plant-based milks.
PATTIES Foods plans to sell the company’s Victorian manufacturing plants in a sale-and-leaseback offering.
It anticipates raising around $130 million from the sales.
Patties Foods CEO Paul Hitchcock said the decision
would allow the company to invest in future growth.
“We are not in the business of property investment – we can save that for long term property investors,” Hitchcock said.
The company will market the land and buildings for sale in
February 2021, and in return take on 30-year leases for both the Bairnsdale and Packenham sites.
Parent company Australasian Foods Holdco is a foreign owned private company through Pacific Equity Partners and manufactures chilled and frozen food products. It employs around 670 people in Australia and New Zealand. In 2020, its revenue was $332 million.
In Food & Drink Business’ Top 100 Food & Drink Companies for 2019, Australasian Foods Holdco jumped from #89 to #68 with the acquisition of Boscastle Pastries Foods.
Other brands in the business include Four ’n Twenty, Herbert Adams, Nanna’s, Ruffie Rustic Foods, and the New Zealand brand Leader.
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | March 2021 | Food&Drink business | 5