News

Family-owned pie brand Mrs Mac’s has been sold to Aus Pie Co, following months of financial pressure and tough times as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In July, The Australian Financial Review and The West Australian reported that Mrs Mac’s was seeking an emergency capital boost to pay down debt or attract a new owner to take control of the iconic brand.

AFR reported that KPMG’s advisers were quietly taking a handful of potential investors through due diligence.

The West Australian stated this week that it had “made inquiries after a filing with the corporate regulator late on Wednesday showed a creditor’s voluntary winding-up process of the 68-year-old company had begun. However the liquidation is only for the old corporate entity, with Mrs Mac’s to continue trading under the new owner”.

“The acquisition of the Mrs Mac’s ensures that the tradition continues and that Mrs Mac’s has a bright future ahead,” said Bruce Feodoroff, CEO at Aus Pie Co. “We have plans to revitalise the company with further investment and improve the range, without sacrificing the flavour’s Australians and New Zealanders love.”

Mrs Mac’s began in Perth as Bakewell Pies in 1954 and was started by the Macgregor family, moving from the city to its current Morley manufacturing headquarters in 1968.

Currently, Mrs Mac’s head office and factory are based in Perth, with an office in Sydney and representatives across Australia and New Zealand.

Coining the famous term “if it’s not a Mrs Mac’s, take it back”, the company employs more than 330 people and has produced more than 100 million pies, rolls and other pasties across Australia and New Zealand.

In September 2021, Mrs Mac’s introduced a new and improved bakery range to be sold at local supermarkets, petrol and convenience stores.

In 2018, the business underwent a rebrand, complete with a new logo, a fresh look and new packaging which highlighted the company’s 68-year history.

Australia’s national wine inventory has risen for the second consecutive year as sales lull, according to a new survey from Wine Australia.

The industry body’s annual production, sales and inventory report found that supply chain constraints in the past two years have severely impacted the Australian wine sector coupled with high deposit tariffs on bottled wine imported to Mainland China along with changing consumer habits.

Total sales for both domestic and export wines were down by 9 per cent to 1.06 billion litres while total Australian wine production was down by 12 per cent to just over 1.3 billion litres.

The national stocks-to-sales ratio for red wine increased by 35 per cent to 2.77 while white wine remained static at 1.52.

Wine Australia’s manager for market insights, Peter Bailey, said the report captures the challenges the Australian grape and wine community have endured during the past couple of years.

“Wine inventory levels fluctuate during the year, generally being at their maximum just after the new vintage and then depleting over the next 12 months as wine is sold.

“However, transportation challenges in getting wine to market is reported to have had a flow-on effect, with wine production capacity expected to be further constrained ahead of vintage 2023 as a result of the higher-than-average inventory.”

The report is a “snapshot” of the national position and covers an estimated 77 per cent of total wine production and is not representative of smaller wine models.

Danielle Byrne has been named Reckitt Hygiene’s new head of sustainability and purpose for Australia.

The newly created leadership role will see her develop and execute the sustainability agenda for consumer household brands including Finish, Glen 20 Vanish and Pine O Cleen.

Byrne joined Reckitt in 2018 and has worked with several strategic customers, most recently with Woolworths. She has experience across the consumer goods industry internationally and lead commercial roles in the UK prior to joining the company.

Reckitt Hygiene ANZ’s regional director, Oliver Tatlow, said Byrne is already playing a “critical role” in helping bring the business’ sustainability strategy to life.

“We recognise that there is more to be done which is why we’ve appointed Danielle Byrne to this newly created role. Danielle brings great energy, drive and focus to the areas where we can make the biggest impact, and her appointment reinforces Reckitt’s commitment to work towards a more socially conscious and environmentally sustainable future.”

Last year, Reckitt pledged to halve its carbon footprint and the use of virgin plastic. It is moving to be 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

Major food and grocery brands in Australia are supporting a new scheme to keep soft plastic packaging out of landfills and build a new recycling industry that can produce food-grade, recycled soft plastic packaging in the country.

Led by the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), the National Plastics Recycling Scheme (NPRS) is a project designed to close the loop for soft plastic packaging and produce food-grade packaging from recycled materials local FMCG companies need but have to source overseas.

The initiative comes just days after the suspension of RedCycle’s soft-plastic recycling scheme that has left thousands of tonnes of unrecycled plastics in warehouses, and supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles forced to suspend collection from customers.

Seventeen major food and grocery manufacturing companies listed below have signed on as Foundation Supporters of the NPRS project, committing funds to the trials and pilots:

• PepsiCo
• Haribo
• Mars
• Simplot
• Unilever
• Mondelez
• Goodman Fielder
• Mayers Fine Food
• Unicharm
• SC Johnson
• Arnott’s
• Fonterra
• George Weston Foods
• Nestle
• Kimberly-Clark
• Kellogg’s
• Lactalis

Tanya Barden, CEO, AFGC, mentioned that the paused RedCycle store drop-off program – unconnected to the NPRS project – addressed a part of the recycling market. However, she said there is a need for a larger-scale program to recycle soft plastics for the long term. 

“Soft plastic packaging plays a vital role in ensuring the freshness and protection of food, personal care and home care products, and manufacturers use soft plastics because they are strong and light with a low carbon footprint,” said Barden.

Nearly 487,000 tonnes of soft-plastic packaging was used in the country from 2019 to 2020, with just 4 per cent of that material recycled. The organisation said diverting soft plastics from landfill on a larger scale can provide a clean stream of material for the country’s emerging advanced recycling industry. 

Darren Thorpe, managing director for APR Group, added there is a huge demand for recycled food-grade plastics not just in the country but all over the world and that collecting soft plastics in large volumes is crucial. 

“We have the technology to do that, and these trials are shaping a scalable model that will enable the creation of a sustainable and efficient advanced recycling industry for soft plastics here in Australia,” said Thorpe.

The first in a series of trials of kerbside collection of soft plastic packaging for NPRS has already begun in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges Shire Council. 

Natural health and supplement retailer Mr Vitamins has launched a natural health bundle range called Vit Kits to “streamline” the supplement shopping experience.

The range is available in five kits under Sleep, Skin, Kids, Calm and Soothe categories, with each kit containing three natural supplements and remedies designed to address relevant conditions.

According to Better Health research, about two-thirds of Australians use complementary and alternative therapies.

Garry Mortlock, CEO at Mr Vitamins, described the kits as a “culmination” of the brand’s quality supplements and expert advice condensed into one kit.

“Each Vit Kit was caringly curated by our qualified naturopaths and nutritionists. From a topline perspective, we believe there is a gap in the market for holistic product bundles, which is why we decided to launch these first five Vit Kits that can assist with some very common health ailments.”

He added there are plans underway to expand the Vit Kits range further according to consumer demand.

The kits are available across Mr Vitamins stores in Sydney and online.

Stuart Alexander & Co, the privately-owned trans-Tasman food and grocery distributor, has secured the rights to represent global tea company Ekaterra’s brands in Australia.

The brands – including Lipton, Bushells, Pukka and T2 – will be distributed across the distributor’s established supermarket channels along with restaurants, hospitals and corporate offices.

Robby Lowrey, Ekaterra’s head of customer development, said the company sees the partnership as “key” to accelerating the growth of its Australian business.

“Ekaterra’s establishment as an independent, single-category business since its sale from Unilever provides a big opportunity to realise the potential of our incredible tea brands across a multitude of channels,” he said.

Stuart Alexander & Co CEO, Nick Nairn, said the partnership will assist Ekaterra to break into new channels and grow its portfolio by 25 per cent in the next three to five years.

The wholesaler already distributes global brands including Chupa Chups, Lotus Biscoff, Mentos, Hershey’s, Monin, Evian and Tabasco.

The world’s largest food trading companies detailed a plan on Monday to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains for soy, beef and palm oil by 2025, a step seen as essential to averting catastrophic climate change.

Destruction of forests – like the Amazon rainforest to make way for farm fields and ranches or Indonesian jungle for palm oil – emits huge amounts of greenhouse gas each year, helping to drive climate change.

The roadmap, launched at the COP27 United Nations climate summit in Egypt, comprises 14 firms including Cargill, Bunge, Archer Daniels Midland, Louis Dreyfus Company, Brazil’s JBS and China’s COFCO International.

The firms said the plan helps put the world on track to limit global warming to an increase of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the threshold beyond which scientists say climate change risks spinning out of control.

The roadmap “represents a significant sector milestone in eliminating commodity-driven deforestation in line with a 1.5°C pathway,” COFCO International CEO Wei Dong said in a statement.

Many of the firms had previously committed to eliminating deforestation by 2025, with the plan establishing milestones along the way that vary slightly by sector.

The environmental advocacy group Mighty Earth CEO Glenn Hurowitz said that 2025 was not soon enough, calling for all deforestation to be ended immediately.

“The roadmap’s insistence that individual companies undertake best efforts to establish individual cut-off dates for deforestation no later than 2025 means the bulldozers will keep running and the destruction will continue,” he said in a statement.

The industry has a spotty record of meeting past deforestation commitments.

In 2010, hundreds of the world’s largest consumer brands as part of the Consumer Goods Forum pledged to reach “net zero” deforestation by 2020. But as the deadline approached, Cargill said that the food industry would fail to meet the goal.

The plan also calls on firms to establish targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and to begin disclosing their emissions from land use change in 2024.

DTC pet wellness start-up, Lyka Pet Food, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. 

Led by Itai Tsidon – a lead investor in other startups such as Gcash, Frame.io, and Forter – the funds will be used for research and development, consumer education, and building manufacturing and distribution capabilities.

Investors include Craig Blair, (founding chairman of Pet Circle) and Paul Wilson (founder and former CEO of Petbarn).

“Lyka’s purpose-driven and innovative ethos are more than just an interesting idea, thousands of real-life examples of positive impact from their customers is a testament to that!”

Established in 2018 by CEO Anna Podilsky (pictured above) and integrative veterinarian Dr Matthew Muir, Lyka aims to deliver freshly prepared, researched-backed, wholefood pet nutrition direct to consumers nationwide.

The startup said its unique algorithm offers customers the opportunity to tailor meal plans specific to their dog’s age, breed, weight, activity level and sensitivities, with the pre-portioned, ready-to-serve meals delivered directly to customers. 

Podolsky said she was thrilled with the substantial backing, noting the capital injection will shine a bright light on the pet-care sector.

“Here at Lyka, dogs are much more than family and deserve to eat like it. There’s a reason why we feel better on a fresh food diet and the same goes for dogs”, she added.

The maker of Dove toiletries and Streets ice creams will allow 500 Australian employees to work shorter weeks after a pilot found staff could be just as productive in four days as five by removing low-value tasks such as meetings and emails.

Unilever Australia will test a four-day workweek for at least 12 months from November 14, and will base its trial on the 100:80:100 model, whereby employees retain 100 per cent of their pay but reduce their hours to 80 per cent, provided they maintain 100 per cent productivity.

All staff except for factory employees covered by existing enterprise bargaining agreements will take part in the trial, which comes after Unilever achieved good results with a four-day workweek experiment in New Zealand.

University of Technology Business School monitored the trial across the ditch. Based on three company-wide online surveys and 57 in-depth interviews between December 1, 2020 and June 30, 2022, it found that staff were less stressed, more productive and more committed to the organisation after the introduction of reduced working hours.

Staff took 34 per cent fewer sick days in 2021 than in 2020. And across the full 18-month trial period, stress fell by 33 per cent, work-life conflicts dropped by 67 per cent, and feelings of strength and vigour at work increased by 15 per cent.

The experiment, which covered about 80 employees in New Zealand and has since been extended, also allowed for strong results against the company’s business objectives. Targets for overheads, market-winning share and sales and revenue growth were either met or exceeded.

The vast majority of employees embraced the change, with 72.8 per cent saying they were frequently sticking to reduced hours, and 88.5 per cent describing the trial as a positive experience.

Fewer emails, fewer meetings

Anish Singh, the head of HR for Unilever Australia and New Zealand, told The Australian Financial Review that moving to a four-day workweek was about giving staff greater autonomy as well as the opportunity to try different ways of working.

He said he hoped a shorter workweek in Australia would lead to happier and healthier employees at the same level of productivity – or even higher.

Key to the trial’s success in New Zealand, he said, was prioritising some tasks while eliminating those that added little or no value.

As a result, the company reduced the average time employees spent in meetings by 3½ hours per week, slashed the number of emails sent and adopted technology such as Microsoft Teams for video calls.

Bronwen Dalton, head of the department of management at UTS Business School, said one of the two big takeaways from the New Zealand trial was that companies had to change the way they worked for a four-day week to be successful.

“[You need] fewer emails, fewer meetings, less time on the phone and other distractions, and [you need to adopt] a practice of deeper work,” she said.

The second major takeaway was that companies should not make a four-day workweek compulsory for all staff, as this takes away the extra autonomy typically given to employees when moving to a work practice focused on outcomes rather than the number of hours worked.

Asked whether the study’s findings were reliable given they were based on surveys, Professor Dalton said the research would be subject to a peer review and used well-established academic techniques, known as “verifiable academic instruments”, to compensate for biases.

She added that employees were likely honest about their experiences, as the surveys were conducted by UTS rather than Unilever, and the university made the data it collected anonymous before sharing it with the company.

A six-month pilot program run by 4 Day Week Global that covered 73 organisations in Britain has also shown positive results for the four-day workweek.

At the UK program’s halfway point, companies were sent questionnaires to capture their experience. Of the 41 companies that responded, 88 per cent said the shorter week was working “well”; 46 per cent said productivity had stayed the same; 34 per cent said it had “improved slightly”; and 15 per cent said it had “improved significantly”.

The a2 Milk Company has been granted temporary access to sell its a2 Platinum infant formula in the United States as the country continues to face a significant shortage of baby formula after a contamination scare.

The US government has been dealing with a major crisis since February after Abbott Nutrition’s plant was closed following a contamination scare.

While multiple companies including smaller rival Bubs Australia was given special market access to help with the shortage, a2 Milk had missed out. In August, it received a letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying the regulator was deferring further review of its request to ship tins.

A2 Milk said on Thursday it now expects gross margins to be lower than average, and distribution costs to be higher due to potential air freight and rework costs in the near term, and incremental marketing and trade investment to enter the category.

Overnight, the FDA said a2 Milk will be able to import its a2 Platinum 0-6 months and 6 to 12-months ranges. Danone (Ireland) will also be able to import ​its Aptamil Stages 1 and 2 formulas.

“Both products will be sold at major US retail outlets,” the FDA said on its website.

The FDA added that the grant of special access follows a review of information provided “pertaining to the nutritional adequacy and safety, including microbial testing, labelling and additional information about facility production and inspection.”

The positive news sent the Kiwi company’s share price soaring on Thursday, gaining 29¢, or 5.5 per cent, to $5.56 each in afternoon trade on the ASX. It has been clawing back some ground since dipping just below $4 each in May.

The crisis continues in the US – while shipments of formula have landed, US media reports stores remain unevenly stocked, and officials in charge of the response blame hoarding, supply chain bottlenecks and manufacturers making fewer varieties.

A2 Milk chief executive David Bortolussi said on Thursday that the company has approval through to January 6, 2023 to import tins to the US.

The company can also supply Stage 3 toddler product in addition to Stages 1 and 2, which does not require enforcement discretion.

Mr Bortolussi added that the product to be supplied to the US has the same formulation as a2 Platinum but has different scoops, mixing instructions and labelling requirements to meet the FDA requirements.

This product is not currently available and will need to be manufactured as soon as possible, he said.

While the US represents a significant opportunity to develop the a2 Milk brand in the formula category over the long term, Mr Bortolussi said it is early days.

“In the near-term, and prior to confirming distribution plans, sales during FY23 are expected to be up to 1 million cans all within 2H23, assuming enforcement discretion remains in place throughout the period,” he said.

“Actual sales will ultimately depend on customer demand, consumer offtake, supply shortages and market conditions at the time.”

A2 Milk will provide an update on US distribution gains and sales outlook when it presents its first half results early next year.