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Confectionery giant Nestlé is expecting organic sales to rise in 2019. following revived growth performance in China and the US last year.

“We are pleased with our progress in 2018. All financial performance metrics improved significantly and we saw revived growth in our two largest markets, the US and China, as well as in our infant nutrition business. Nestlé keeps investing in future growth and – at the same time – has increased the amount of cash returned to shareholders through our dividend and share buyback program,” Mark Schneider, Nestlé CEO said.

“We made significant progress with our portfolio transformation and sharpened our Group’s strategic focus, strengthening key growth categories and geographies in the process. Our unique Nutrition, Health & Wellness strategy, with food, beverage and nutritional health products at its core, has become much clearer as we completed a sizeable number of transactions and announced strategic reviews for Nestlé Skin Health and Herta.”

Organic sales grew 3.0 per cent in the full year with RIG of 2.5 per cent for the full year. Net acquisitions increased sales by 0.7 per cent, due to the acquisitions of the Starbucks license and Atrium Innovations. North America also showed solid growth in Purina petcare including Pro Plan, Fancy Feast and Tidycat, and online. Coffee-mate creamers and Nestlé Professional also maintained high growth.

The confectionery giant also reported positive growth after launching Nescafé Gold and KitKat Gold in Australia. Overall for Oceania and Asia, infant nutrition, Purina petcare and Nestlé Professional grew mid single-digit, helped by a strong performance in the second half. The Zone’s underlying trading operating profit margin improved by 60 basis.

Nespresso reported positive growth across all regions, continuing to expand globally, reaching 792 boutiques.

“In 2018, we upgraded our innovation engine notably to ensure continued technology leadership and a shorter time to market. In the fast-changing food and beverage space Nestlé has what it takes to truly excite consumers with meaningful innovation and must-have products,” Schneider said.

“We reaffirmed our sustainability leadership at a time when consumers and regulators around the world are increasingly looking for solutions to today’s environmental and societal problems. Our decisive action and strong commitments to tackle the global packaging waste problem are a case in point. We are on our way to meeting our 2020 targets and positioning Nestlé for sustained and sustainable growth in the years beyond.”

Nestlé also announced on Thursday that the company is proposing an election of Dick Boer, former president and CEO of Ahold Delhaize, and Dinesh Paliwal, president and CEO of Harman International, to its Board of Directors.

A soft launch of the formula has targeted Coles, with Woolworths and Chemist Warehouse to follow. Bellamy's said the formula would be stocked once the old formula had sold through, and a more formal launch would be likely after Lunar New Year when supermarkets had fully stocked the product. 

Product development is critical for every consumer company, Morgan Stanley analyst Thomas Kierath says. 

US supermarket Kroger has expanded its Home Chef meal kits to 500 additional Kroger stores across the country.

Home Chef has also launched a customisable meal kit feature for online orders on its website, in which consumers can change and upgrade recipe ingredients.

“Kroger continues to redefine the customer experience and provide new ways to shop for, prep and cook meals through exciting brick-and-mortar and digital experiences,” said Robert Clark, Kroger’s senior vice president of merchandising.

“Last October, Kroger introduced Home Chef retail meal kits, and we’re now expanding to add the easy-to-prepare recipes to hundreds of new locations, providing convenient access to the meal solution at more than 700 stores. We look forward to the continued growth of Home Chef in 2019 through expansion and new products.”

Home Chef offers rotating retail menu weekly with a variety of classic meals, including Home Chef Express meal kits that can be prepared in 15 minutes or less. Each meal kit is designed to serve two and starts at $8.50 per serving.

Australia’s seafood trade faces an uncertain future as the coronavirus threatens to leave many unemployed. It is a major concern for exporters like David Caracciolo who owns Mackay Reef Fish Supplies in Queensland. He said his business usually does well around Chinese New Year but the halt of exports to China has made things tough.

“We export live mud crabs this time of year but that has just stopped,” Caracciolo told AAP. “The consumption domestically has also dried up.”

Without a change in fortune or help from the state government, Caracciolo said he feared for job losses.

Sales of coral trout have also plummeted in Queensland with up to 40 boats being pulled from the water, according to the Queensland Seafood Industry Association.

Chief executive officer Eric Perez warns action must be taken quickly to save jobs as the coronavirus shuts off China which has temporarily shut down its live animal trade. China and Southeast Asia make up about 99 per cent of Queensland’s live coral trout market.

“It’s pretty much killed that market in the interim,” Perez told AAP. “The market has been pulled out from under us.”

Perez was part of a round-table discussion with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Wednesday, the outcome of which he said will be critical to helping the trade.

“We need help quickly. We don’t need any bureaucratic mumbling,” he said prior to the meeting. 

Australia’s domestic market could become flooded with seafood product if providers are prevented from selling to Asia. Perez said this could lead to a drop in price, which is great for consumers but could lead to crews being unable to pay business overheads.

Seafood workers across the nation have watched their industry grind to a halt, with crayfish exports from WA ceasing while rock lobster sales in SA and Victoria have been decimated.

Australian Fresh Milk Holdings (AFMH) has finalised the acquisition of Coomboona Dairy farm.

Freedom Foods confirmed that Australian Fresh Milk Holdings, in which it owns a 10 per cent stake, purchased the operation in Northern Victoria.

The acquisition will expand AFMH’s production which will leverage on delivering sustainable production of high quality milk, supporting a range of value added product opportunities.

Currently the dairy business operates Moxey Farms in Lachlan Valley, New South Wales. Freedom Foods said the acquisition propels AFMH as the largest dairy producer in Australia with current operations forecasted to produce over 150 million litres in 2019.

Freedom Foods is now utilising a proportion of the dairy milk output from Moxey Farms and Coomboona Dairy for it’s Australia’s Own Kid’s Milk and other dairy products. As part of the acquisition, Freedom Foods contributed A$4.6 million in equity funding, based on its 10 per cent equity shareholding.

The opening of Bubs’ corporate daigou channel has helped infant formula maker outstrip last year’s total revenue in just six months, including a 23-fold increase in sales to China.

In a quarterly trading update on Wednesday, Bubs flagged $21 million in gross revenue for the six months to December 31, already beating its $18.42 million revenue from FY18.

Bubs’ second-quarter gross revenue of $12.1 million was up nearly five-fold on the same period last year, and 35 per cent up on the first quarter of FY19, while sales more than doubled on the prior corresponding period.

The company is due to report its audited half-year results on February 28.

Founder and chief executive Kristy Carr credited the lift to its pursuit of China cross-border eCommerce sales and activation of the corporate daigou distribution channel.

“Sales into China are 23-fold up on the same period last year, demonstrating our route-to-market strategy is being successfully executed,” she said.

In June, the company raised $40 million in shares at 75 cents each in to support its Chinese push, while in the same month it secured a deal to sell its products on the nations biggest e-commerce platform: Alibaba.

In December, Bubs secured additional goat milk supply with NZ’s Central Dairy Goats Pty Limited, adding another six million litres annually.

Domestic sales growth is up nearly four-fold year-on-year and up 18 per cent on the previous quarter.

Bubs products and CapriLac powder account for 48 per cent and 38 per cent of the quarter’s revenue respectively, with fresh dairy products accounting for the remaining 14 per cent.

Shares in Bubs were trading at 43 cents before open of trade on Thursday, down from 72 cents a year ago.

Agricultural fund manager Laguna Bay and West Australian businessman Peter Fogarty have injected $16 million into ailing McWilliam's Wines in a recapitalisation that new chief executive David Pitt says will enable it to break even this year after a dive into the red.

Mr Pitt, who took the helm in July, said the historic wine company had to modernise and start making more wines that consumers wanted to buy rather than focusing too much on the past.

"We need to get the balance right," he said.

He also intends cutting up to $10 million in costs from McWilliam's operations and wants the winemaker to move further up the value chain to focus more on higher quality wines.

He said a new range under the MCW banner was showing good signs and was evidence of a more modern, consumer-focused approach, steering clear of "wines that we're making for ourselves rather than what consumers want".

"If you don't play the game properly, then you are going to miss out," Mr Pitt said.

Laguna Bay is injecting $9.6 million into the company via the Margaret River Wine Production vehicle controlled by Mr Fogarty, who has extensive wine interests in Western Australia's Margaret River region, and also controls the Lake's Folly brand in NSW's Hunter Valley. Mr Fogarty is pumping a further $6.2 million in via the MRWP entity.

The looming recapitalisation and heavy losses at McWilliam's were revealed in The Australian Financial Review early on Tuesday.

Mr Fogarty said he and Mr Pitt were "aligned on strategy" and the two groups would work more closely.

Mr Pitt said McWilliam's generated 85 per cent of its sales in the domestic market, but China would be a much larger focus: "We certainly see that as a significant growth opportunity."

Been through upheaval

He said the "cash flow challenges" of the past year would be addressed partly by the recapitalisation, but costs needed pruning and "we're obviously starting that journey now". The company had also had too many brands and product lines. "We've diluted ourselves by playing with a number of different brands," he said.

McWilliam's, with a history dating to 1877, is an unlisted public company owned by 70 family members. It is the sixth largest wine group in Australia.

It has been through upheaval after shifting its bottling line and packaging operations from suburban Sydney to its Hanwood winery in the Riverina region in NSW, and faced lower yields from its vineyards after drought in the Riverina and Hunter Valley. It has also been squeezed after being too reliant on the commercial wine segment under $10 per bottle, where margins are razor thin.

The company sells brands including Mount Pleasant and Hanwood Estate.

Documents lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission late last month show McWilliam's made a bottom-line loss of $5.5 million for the 12 months ended June 30, 2018, but that losses had been reined in from the disastrous $22 million tumble into the red of a year earlier. Sales revenue fell 13 per cent to $87.4 million in 2017-18.

Mr Fogarty bought a controlling stake in the Evans & Tate wine brand and production assets from McWilliam's in October 2017 for $32 million under a previous deal, where McWilliam's was left with 30 per cent. McWilliam's also entered into a three-year loan agreement with MRWP at that time, and has been in breach of some of those financial covenants.

Mr Fogarty's broader wine operations include Deep Woods, Millbrook Winery and Smithbrook in Western Australia, and Lake's Folly.

McWilliam's also has a $12 million trade receivables facility with AssetSecure, and at June 30 was in breach of an interest cover ratio covenant connected to that facility.

McWilliam's also breached a loan contract with privately owned Californian wine giant E&J Gallo, which held a small stake in McWilliam's until late 2014. Under a loan agreement with E&J Gallo, $1.675 million was due to be repaid on July 1 last year but McWilliam's did not make the payment. Six weeks later, the companies agreed the amount would be repaid in three instalments.

When Kate Morris started selling beauty products from the garage of her Melbourne home in 1999, she had no idea whether women would embrace buying cosmetics online.

At the time, Morris was a 21-year-old university student manning the Clarins counter at a major department store and believed there had to be a less confronting, more empowering way to buy makeup and skincare products.

"What I saw was a disenchantment with department store shopping," recalls Morris, now 40.

"It was really clear to me women found it really disempowering and a bit unpleasant – you're talking about a product that's supposed to be making you feel confident and the shopping experience shouldn't make you feel the opposite."

With $12,000 borrowed from her boyfriend's parents, she set up Adore Beauty, Australia's first dedicated e-commerce site for beauty products, and started knocking on the doors of beauty brands.

Her timing was impeccable.

According to a Roy Morgan report this week, 26 per cent of women who buy cosmetics regularly purchase health and beauty products online, up from 18 per cent four years ago.

Online beauty retailing now accounts for 21 per cent of the $4 billion Australian market – up from less than 5 per cent 10 years ago.

IBISWorld forecasts online sales will grow 10 per cent a year over the next few years, four times faster than the total industry, reaching 33 per cent of the market by 2024.

The online shift has tripped up beauty retailer Napoleon Perdis, which has been forced to close half its 52 bricks-and-mortar stores and restructure the business after falling into voluntary administration.

But Adore Beauty has thrived, with sales growing threefold in two years, from $16 million in 2016 to $52 million in 2018.

Sales are forecast to double this year to more than $100 million, despite increased competition from bricks-and-clicks rivals Sephora, Mecca Cosmetica and Australian Pharmaceutical Industries' Priceline and the arrival of Amazon.

The boss of Australia's largest paint company, Dulux Group, says while the new housing market is in a "late cycle" position and coming off its peak it is still expected to remain relatively strong, while homeowners repainting existing houses will deliver solid growth.

Patrick Houlihan, who has been at the helm of Dulux for almost 11 years, said 65 per cent of the company's end market exposure came from maintenance, home improvement and renovations in Australia, and would continue to be a robust driver of the business.

Dulux on Thursday announced a 9 per cent rise in first half net profit after tax for the six months ended March 31 to $79.2 million, while revenues increased 4.2 per cent to $918 million.

The company lifted its first half dividend by 7.7 per cent to a fully franked 14.0¢ per share, to be paid on June 12.

Dulux is also working closely with Wesfarmers in the United Kingdom, which has made a big bet on the UK hardware market with the acquisition of the 244-store Homebase chain in early 2016 as it tries to build a profitable Bunnings business in the UK.

Dulux has a range of Selleys products in Bunnings and Homebase in the UK.

Wesfarmers is now weighing up whether it should continue with the hardware chain, which is struggling to make headway and is a big drag on the broader Wesfarmers.

Mr Houlihan said he was hopeful that Wesfarmers would persist with the UK plans.

"If Bunnings continues we would welcome that," Mr Houlihan said.

It provided a "pathway" for the Selleys business in particular in the UK, but he emphasised that the UK was only a small part of the overall Dulux operations and that if Bunnings did shut down in the UK there were other options.

"We were on the ground there in terms of our own activities before Bunnings turned up," Mr Houlihan said.

In Australia, Mr Houlihan said the 10 million dwellings in Australia, which are older than 20 years, will keep providing a robust platform for the Dulux operations to thrive.

He said there was a strong correlation between GDP growth and decorative paint market volumes, and even though house price houses were softening, there were other important positive factors such as low interest rates and solid consumer confidence.

New housing makes up 15 per cent of Dulux revenues but was still strong in an historical context.

Mr Houlihan said even though the high-rise apartment market was softening there was still good demand in smaller apartment projects.

"There still seems to be a big pipeline of low-storey residential," he said.

The Dulux Australasian operations produced a 5.2 per cent rise in earnings before interest and tax to $93.1 million, while the Selleys and Parchem Australasian business generated a 5.1 per cent rise in EBIT to $14.4 million.

Dulux also operates the B&D Group garage doors division and the Lincoln Sentry kitchen cabinets hardware business and both of those divisions delivered solid gains too.

Dulux also announced that chairman Peter Kirby would be retiring from the board on June 30, and that Graeme Liebelt would be taking over in the that position.

Marley Spoon CEO Fabian Siegel says more than $30 million in new funding will help support the meal-kit company until it breaks even in 2020. Louie Douvis

It has also signed a €2.5 million two-year term loan agreement with German lender Berliner Volksbank, extended the bulk of an existing €6.7 million loan from Moneda until 2020, and entered into a €2.6 million equipment-leasing agreement with CSC Leasing to finance equipment to support the automation of production lines in the US and Australia.

Marley Spoon shares rose 15 per cent to 55¢ in thin trade on Tuesday after gaining 27 per cent last Thursday. The shares have plunged 75 per cent since the company listed last July amid question marks over the long term economics of its business model.

Path to breaking even