Live Better Brands Promoting Way Better Snacks
Live Better Brands will showcase its sprouted ingredient tortilla chips, Way Better Snacks®, at the Natural Products Expo-West in Anaheim on March 9-11.
The company believes that sprouted ingredients are the next big health trend in the food industry wants to set the standard for the use of sprouted ingredients in the snack food category. Historically, snack foods have a bad reputation for being loaded with additives, preservatives, sugar, sodium, highly processed ingredients—and equally light in any sort of nutritional value or healthy attributes.
Live Better Brands says it knew there was a way to make a more nutritious snack food and that’s what they set out to do. By including sprouted ingredients like flaxseed, chia seeds, quinoa, black beans, broccoli seeds and daikon radish seeds, Way Better Snacks built a better tortilla chip. In addition to the sprouted ingredients, the tortilla chips are also certified gluten free, non-GMO, certified 100 percent whole grain, certified kosher and low sodium. The chips also are free from additives, preservatives, artificial colors or flavors.
Way Better Snacks has six varieties of sprouted ingredient tortilla chips: Simply Sunny Multi Grain, Simply Sweet Potato, Simply Beyond Black Beans, Simply Sweet Chili, Simply Unbeatable Blues and No Salt Naked Blues.
Procter & Gamble Cutting 5,700 Jobs
Procter & Gamble (P&G) will cut 5,700 jobs by the end of fiscal 2013 as part of a $10 billion effort to reduce costs.
CEO Bob McDonald told analysts today, Feb. 24, at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference that the cuts will come from non-manufacturing positions, Cincinnati’s Business Courier reports. The reduction amounts to 10 percent, or about 5,700, of 57,000 non-manufacturing jobs.
The Cincinnati-based maker of such products as Tide detergent, Charmin bath tissue and Gillette razors previously announced a round of 1,600 job cuts from non-manufacturing employment. Those positions will be eliminated by the end of June this year, with the remainder to come by the end of June 2013 or very soon thereafter, P&G spokesman Paul Fox said.
Reuters reported that P&G also cut its quarterly and year-end earnings forecasts based on its deal to sell the Pringles brand of snack chips to Kellogg Co. About 1,700 Pringles jobs will shift to Kellogg’s but were not included in today’s jobs announcement.
Mars Debuts Solar Garden At Ethel M Chocolate Factory
Mars Chocolate North America, makers of Las Vegas’ own Ethel M Chocolates, hosted a grand opening of a new solar garden at its Henderson chocolate factory today, Feb. 23. The state-of-the-art solar installation provides 100 percent of the electrical energy to the Ethel M plant during peak operating hours.
The project’s completion was commemorated with a ribbon cutting event attended by state and local government officials, executives from NV Energy, juwi solar Inc. (JSI), and Mars Chocolate North America leaders.
“At Mars Chocolate North America, we have the opportunity to make a difference in the world,” said Mike Wittman, VP of supply. “We are proud of the investments we are making to ensure we are using the earth’s resources responsibly. This newest solar garden moves us closer to our goals of eliminating our carbon footprint at our sites by 2040 and using 100 percent renewable energy.”
The new Ethel M factory solar garden features 2,112 ground-mounted solar panels on 4.4 acres, and is the largest solar installation by a food manufacturer in Nevada. The installation generates 1,258 megawatt hours of zero-emission electricity each year, offsetting 867 metric tons of greenhouse gas—the equivalent of removing approximately 170 vehicles from the road. The project will generate as much energy as 115 Nevada households use annually.
Mars will purchase all of the energy generated by the solar garden, and JSI will own the project and its associated energy credits. Mars worked closely with NV Energy to ensure that the new installation met net metering requirements, enabling Mars to receive energy offsets from the utility based on the amount of energy their solar panels will produce.
“Turning one of the desert’s greatest assets into energy is in complete alignment with Mars’ Principles in Action, our core business values,” said Mack Phillips, site director of the Henderson plant. “Two years ago we unveiled a similar solar project at our North American headquarters in Hackettstown, N.J., and its impact on our operations has been substantial.”
“This is the second solar PV project built by juwi solar on Mars-owned property,” said Michael Martin, CEO of JSI. “We are proud to play a role in advancing environmental and sustainability goals by replacing the grid’s brown power with green power generated onsite.”
The solar garden is adjacent to the chocolate factory and Ethel M’s Botanical Cactus Garden. A vista point located within the Botanical Cactus Garden will allow the more than 700,000 annual visitors to view the new solar facility.
“We are fortunate to have been a part of the Henderson and Las Vegas community for more than 30 years,” added Phillips. “We hope the completion of our solar garden demonstrates our continuing commitment to be an environmentally friendly citizen. Our goal is that every business decision we make will have a positive effect on people and the planet through our performance. This project achieves all three.”
Trader Joe’s Adds Two More Houston Sites
Trader Joe’s is adding two more Houston, Texas, area sites to its shopping list for store locations, according information on the Texas Comptroller’s website.
The grocery store chain has received sales tax permits to open stores at 1440 S. Voss and 2922 S. Shepherd. The new locations will join a store under development in The Woodlands that is expected to open this spring, reports the Houston Business Journal.
The Shepherd site is in the former Alabama Theatre, while the Voss site is on a long-vacant tract across from a Randalls grocery store.
The California-based company, which started in the 1950s as a chain of convenience stores, sells traditional groceries as well as ones packaged under the Trader Joe’s name.
H-E-B Opens New Central Market Convenience Format
The Dallas News reports that H-E-B has opened a new mini Central Market in Dallas, Texas.
The News says it looks “as if someone took the CM concept and squeezed it up and in: You’ll see most of the products found at the larger stores, but tighter stocks stacked high—a narrower trough of sweet potatoes, apples in a vertical display or a smaller selection of Milano’s cured meats.
“Incredibly, an on-site bakery is shoehorned in, with new features to include traditional boil and-bake bagels as well as the familiar, house-made flour tortillas. The deli will feature more New York deli-style dishes and NYC-based Charlito’s Cocina salami.
“Like a true urban market, not an inch of the 30,000 s.f. is wasted. A wine display hugs a support pillar. A tiny, high shelf runs the length of the dairy case, holding items such as CM Organics applesauce and loose tea. Even the shopping carts are smaller. The store is open 8 a.m.-10 p.m. daily, and you can wake up with the coffee bar at 7 a.m.”
San Francisco Bans All Plastic Disposable Bags
The Wall Street Journal reports that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to make it illegal for any shop in the city to offer disposable plastic bags to customers. The law expands a 2007 bag ban that applied to large grocery stores and pharmacies, and also mandates stores charge customers 10 cents apiece for paper bags.
The legislation, meant to reduce litter and waste-processing costs, requires all retail outlets stop distributing single-use plastic bags in October. Starting in 2013, the ban will apply to restaurants as well. Reusable bags will remain legal, according to the Journal.
Austin Bag Ban Could Cost Texas 8,800 Jobs, Group Says
The American Progressive Bag Alliance believes a ban of single-use plastic bags in Austin, Texas, could cost the state 8,800 jobs.
An alliance of plastic bag manufacturers estimate that a bag ban in Austin, Texas, could cost the state 8,800 jobs, reports the Austin Business Journal.
The Journal reports that the American Progressive Bag Alliance is against the city’s proposed ordinance to tax and ban single-use plastic bags that Mayor Lee Leffingwell has been pushing for.
An Austin Resource Recovery report in January said the bags cost the city $850,000 a year to clean up as litter and put in landfills. The city’s current single-stream auto-sorting recycling system cannot handle single-use plastic bags, according to the Journal.
“We feel that recycling legislation is a better environmental policy,” said Donna Dempsey, a spokeswoman for the APBA, which is currently working on recycling legislation in two states.
Last year, the organization attempted unsuccessfully to get recycling legislation introduced by the state legislature.
The draft ordinance currently before the city council calls for retailers to charge either 10 cents per single-use bag or $1 per transaction starting March 1, 2013, the Journal says.
California County Bans Use Of Plastic Bags By 1,900 Retailers
The Alameda County Waste Authority has banned the use of plastic grocery bags by grocery stores and some other retailers starting next year, reports the San Francisco Business Times.
Some 1,900 retailers in the California county will be hit by the ban, which covers pharmacies, supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience food stores and liquor stores. Restaurants and take-out food joints aren’t covered by the ban, nor are charity thrift stores or retail stores that don’t sell packaged food.
Stores can give customers paper bags (made of recycled paper, naturally), but must charge a dime for them, the Times says. Plastic bags used inside the store to carry fruits and vegetables or meat to the register are not banned.
Shops will be required to keep records for 18 months on any recycled paper bags or reusable grocery bags they sell.
Local jurisdictions can opt out of the ban by March 2, 2012, under certain conditions.
The authority, StopWaste.org, has posted a list of questions and answers on its website.
Berkeley’s City Council will discuss a stricter ban on plastic bags at a meeting at the end of January, according to the Times.
