World Cup to spice up Food Solutions volumes
November 2, 2009
By SAMANTHA ENSLIN-PAYNE
Food Solutions, the Unilever subsidiary that supplies sauces, dressing and spices to the food service industry, expects volumes to rise substantially next year as tourists flood to South Africa.
Eelco Camminga, the vice-president at Food Solutions, said last week volumes were expected to be up by more than 20 percent for the months of June and July based on demand from hotels, restaurants and event caterers.
The rise in demand from foreigners in these areas may be at the expense of local demand. He said event caterers would benefit the most as the World Cup would result in additional volumes for them.
School holidays have been extended to six weeks over the period, which will put pressure on travel and hotel accommodation, with locals possibly having to vacation in areas that are not affected by the event. The extra two weeks of school holidays would result in reduced business in the education sector, he said.
Last week Food Solutions opened a new R23 million factory in Pietermaritzburg after relocating it from Phoenix.
The new facility will make syrups, sauces, salad dressings, fast food chains' mixtures, salts and ice cream toppings. This includes Mrs Ball's chutney and Hellmann's mayonnaise.
Camminga said as fan parks would account for a large part of the food consumption during the event, a greater demand for fast food restaurant food solutions, such as dressings and spices, was expected.
Kevin Hedderwick, the chief operating officer of Famous Brands, which owns Wimpy, Mugg & Bean and Debonairs Pizza, agreed that turnover during the World Cup would show a sharp spike. He added the build-up was likely to begin from March as journalists and individual teams and additional Fifa officials started setting up bases in the country.
"We are fortunate that we manufacture ourselves, with the exception of soft drinks and perishables, and own our own supply chain."
Hedderwick said the group's bakery and meat plant had spare capacity that could be ramped up overnight.
He expected that, like other peak seasons, more staff would be temporarily employed to meet demand.
He said for Famous Brands it had been a slow build-up to the World Cup.
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