- NutraSweet's amazing March 31st press release is material
for a standup comic: CEO Craig Petray says consumers are switching to
diet soft drinks so the company plans to restart an Augusta GA production
line "mothballed" in 2003. Full production will be reached in
2006, and will "create fewer than 20 jobs." NutraSweet will
also cut prices. Petray said aspartame demand has been rising "largely
because of its use in popular drinks like Diet Coke."
-
- Now just a minute! The soda pop produces are jumping
off aspartame like fleas off a wet pooch. Coke and Pepsi are reformulating
with a plethora of products, squirming to get away from aspartame's kiss
of death. Coke sells New Coke, Classic Coke, Diet Coke, Diet Coke with
Splenda, C-2, Lime Diet Coke and now Coca Cola Zero! Pepsi dances to the
same music. To order a soft drink the list looks like a Chinese menu.
-
- The move is on to Splenda, now the #1 chemical sweetener.
But the good news is bad news! Splenda is also a poison that destroys
our immune systems and slowly wrecks fatal havoc on human health. Its
chlorinated sugar, in the class of chlorinated hydrocarbons that includes
insecticides chlordane, lindane and DDT. Check the Internet for dangers
of Splenda, especially Dr. Mercola's excellent expose' of this treacherous
toxin.
-
- The Boardroom Bounce: The pop companies change bosses
as quick as products. Last week Pepsi Chairman Rudkin, an old-timer who's
been there 2 years, abandoned ship. Coke's had three, count 'em, three
CEOs in five years. Of course, these fine gentlemen departed:
-
- To pursue other opportunities,
- To spend time with my family,
- To mow the yard, etc.,
- Which in corporate-ese means: They got the boot!
-
- TRANSLATION OF NUTRASWEET'S PRESS RELEASE:
- "Our line was mothballed in 2003"
- Sales were in the toilet.
-
- "We plan on opening it next year"
- But you won't hear when we change our plans.
- Could be we'll close another line.
-
- "Demand is tremendous!"
- So we have to cut prices.
-
- "We sell a bunch to CocaCola"
- A dinky bunch, that is.
-
- "We'll need a dozen workers"
- WhoopDeDoo! And we got a press release!
-
- Will someone turn on a fan? The smoke is getting thick
around here!
-
- Dr. Betty Martini, Mission Possible Intl,
- 9270 River Club Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30097
- 770 242-2599 http:www//.wnho.net
- Join the Aspartame Information List
- & http://www.dorway.com
-
- And here's the financial report:
-
- From Mark D. Gold
- mgold@holisticmed.com
- 4-29-5
-
- http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1270597
/000104746905011112/a2146569zs-4a.htm
-
- You can see on the Page 11 chart that their Net sales
has gone down significantly and their Cost of sales has gone up significantly,
leaving a ~6% reduction in gross profit and an overall 5.2 million dollar
loss for 2004.
-
- A more interesting chart can be seen on the top of Page
34 detailing sales for North American, Europe/Africa/MiddleEast, Latin
America, and Asia/Pacific. Sales in North America decreased by 15%. However,
sales dollars increased in Europe/Africa/MiddleEast due primarily to a
$15.4 million "favorible currency impact" (I'm guessing that
the increase in value of the Euro as compared to the dollar) and increased
sales in the U.K. and South Africa. Too bad for the people of the U.K.
and South Africa, but fortunately for the U.S. the sales of Equal Poison
Packets are beginning to dry up.
-
- The end of that page is mentioned litigation in Puerto
Rico and a recall in Australia. I don't know what those are about.
-
- On the Page 12 Balance Sheet Data, it looks like their
Total Debt has gone down from $460.1 million to $439.9 million in the last
few months of 2004. On the other hand, their Cash has gone down ~$4 million,
Working capital has gone down ~$20 million, Total Assets have gone down
~$17 million. (I'm comparing these figures to the SEC filing at www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1270597/0001047
46904036502/a2146569zs-4a .htm , page 13.)
-
- It looks like they will be offering "Notes"
on the $225,000,000 debt that is due by 2013. So, if you know anyone who
wants to invest in this sinking ship, maybe you can pass this along.
-
- Of course, this only applies to Merisant and not JW Childs
(NutraSweet), but I suspect the results for JW Childs would be similar
if they had to report their NutraPoison income to the SEC as opposed to
simply issuing PR releases.
-
- Best Wishes,
-
- Mark Gold
- Aspartame/NutraSweet Toxicity Info Center
- 12 East Side Dr., #2-18
- Concord, NH 03301
- 603-225-2110
- mgold@holisticmed.com
- http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/
-
- PLANETNEWS@aol.com wrote:
-
- TownOnline.com - Printer friendly Job, anyone? I am
madly curious to know the health of the workers in these plants (such as
Wrigley) Do they get hazard pay? Just smelling the fumes of aspartame
can kill.
-
- <snip>
-
- From the following article:
-
- Workers don't even need to change the giant 12,000- or
9,000-gallon tanks that mix Classic. But they need to completely empty
and sanitize the mix tanks that may have Dr Pepper or Diet Coke at different
times. New products are conceived at Coca-Cola's headquarters in Atlanta,
not by accident on the production line.
-
- No matter the motto, it's Coca-Cola
- By David Ertischek/ Staff Writer
- Thursday, March 31, 2005
-
- The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. has to be one of the sweetest-smelling
factories in the world. And this past Monday, it smelled even sweeter for
Red Sox fans.
-
- In celebration of the Red Sox being World Series
champions, the Needham Heights factory is producing 25,000 cases of 8-ounce
commemorative glass bottles.
-
- "It's a great-looking bottle," said a
smiling state Rep. Lida Harkins, D-Needham. "I'm going to keep it.
I'd hate to open the bottle. I'm a big Red Sox fan."
-
- Harkins, who's a caffeine-free Diet Coke kind of
gal, was happy to take one of the first bottles off the line.
-
- And soon the bottles will make their way through
the commonwealth, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and -
New York!
-
- "Just to tick 'em off," joshed Jim Doyle,
director of operations.
-
- Working nearby the conveyor belt was Needham resident
Jimmy Malzone, 49, son of former Sox third baseman Frank Malzone.
-
- "I like it," said Malzone of the new bottle.
"My dad loved it. He thinks it's great that the Red Sox won the World
Series."
-
- As a production worker, Malzone gets to run the
can filler.
-
- "It still amazes me how fast we do it,"
said Malzone, a 26-year veteran at the B Street bottling factory, which
is called the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New England. About 2,000 cans
on two conveyor lines are filled per minute. "We have seven men on
the can line, starting with an empty can with no lid."
-
- Before a drop of soda hits the can, an air rinser
with a negative charge cleans and purifies the can to make sure that any
dust or contaminants are gone.
-
- The can then makes it to the filler, then to the
seamer, which drops a lid on top of the can, which then gets crimped on.
Then it's on to the warmer, the coder (for its date) and then to the packers
to ship it out.
-
- An interesting facet of the production is the cooling
and warming process that needs to occur. In order to carbonate a product,
the temperature of the bottle needs to be brought down to about 36 degrees,
which costs a whole lot of cash, said Doyle.
-
- But then the product needs to be brought up to room
temperature because if it is "sweating," mold or mildew could
occur during shipment.
-
- Everything is monitored from a laboratory attached
to the conveyor belt room. Filler speed, pressure, carbon dioxide, sweetness,
fill heights and the right amount of concentrate are all measured. The
lab technicians have such a grasp on their product that you could pull
out a can from the warehouse and find out at what time it was filled, down
to the very second.
-
- If anything goes wrong while it's on the conveyor
belt, the machines knock off the sub-par can or bottle. That could mean
a nick on a glass bottle, a level lower than the fill line or too much
carbon dioxide. From the conveyor belt, the inferior products are knocked
off onto the floor and later recycled. There is also an actual X-ray machine
that measures fill lines.
-
- "Having worked for the competitor, I can tell
you that Coca-Cola is much more quality focused," said Doyle.
-
- When he says "competitor," he means Pepsi.
No Coca-Cola employee says the P-word, just "competitor." But
it's OK to talk about the long-lost third cola party, RC Cola (which they
think is still around).
-
- As for being an employee of the Coca-Cola Bottling
Co., don't even think about bringing in a non-Coca-Cola product, like the
P-word. The competitor's products are not allowed in the building. But
if you're a construction worker on the premises and not a full-time Coca-Cola
employee, you might be able to sneak in a P-word bottle or a Mountain Dew.
-
- But why would you want to? Malzone said fountain
soda is free in the employee lounge, it's 25 cents for a 12-ounce can,
and oddly, bottled water is 50 cents.
-
- "Water is our most important ingredient,"
said Doyle. On an average day, 400,000 gallons of water are put into containers
and another 200,000 or so are used for warming, cooling and boilers.
-
- "It's basically pharmaceutical grade. No impurities,
no chlorine," said Doyle. "Basically it's perfect."
-
- "It makes great coffee," added Malzone.
-
- The water basically comes from Needham, or from
other sources when summer droughts occur. Doyle added that water prices
have gone up 100 percent in the past five years.
-
- But there's plenty of Coca-Cola to go around. Actually,
the production of Coca-Cola Classic never stops at the factory as long
as it's open.
-
- Workers don't even need to change the giant 12,000-
or 9,000-gallon tanks that mix Classic. But they need to completely empty
and sanitize the mix tanks that may have Dr Pepper or Diet Coke at different
times. New products are conceived at Coca-Cola's headquarters in Atlanta,
not by accident on the production line.
-
- Joe Papapietro, vice president and general manager
of the New England operation, estimated that 35 to 45 percent of New England's
Coca-Cola sales come from the Classic formula. And people drink more diet
cola in New England, according to Papapietro.
-
- Nearby the mix tank room is the concentrate room,
which is what makes a soft drink a soft drink. The bottling company then
adds the concentrate with liquids: water, sugar or aspartame, depending
on what the product is, such as diet or a noncarbonated drink.
-
- Often there will be more than $3 million of concentrate
in the room at a given time. Giant barrels of concentrate hold 60 units
of the sweetest stuff in the world that could probably send you into a
coma. Each unit can produce 9,000 cases of cola.
-
- And the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New England
keeps its concentrate cool - real cool.
-
- Cool like its longest-running partnership, longer
than its partnership with the Olympics. The Boston Red Sox, the world champions,
who have their own commemorative glass bottle.
-
- David Ertischek can be reached at dertisch@cnc.com.
-
- and even scarier...
-
- NutraSweet To Boost Aspartame Capacity
-
- March 30, 2005
-
- NEW YORK, (AP) --With more
consumers switching to diet soft drinks, NutraSweet Co., a leading producer
of aspartame, plans to restart a mothballed production line at a Georgia
plant this year to satisfy increased demand for the sugar substitute.
-
- The plans will result in a 30 percent increase in aspartame
production, NutraSweet Chief Executive Craig Petray said.
-
- According to Petray, aspartame demand is rising 4 percent
to 5 percent, largely due to its use in U.S. soft drinks.
-
- "Despite sucralose getting most of the headlines
in recent months, the resurgence in demand for aspartame is a key development
in 2004," said Nick Fereday, a senior economist at LMC International
Ltd., a New York consulting firm that tracks developments in the sugar
and sweetener industries.
-
- In recent years, use of low-calorie sweeteners has grown
faster than sugar use, Fereday said.
-
- The demand for low-calorie sugar substitutes has been
so strong that right now there is room in the market for all of these sweeteners
to grow, according to Fereday.
-
- Chicago-based NutraSweet will reopen part of its aspartame
facility in Augusta, Ga., that has been shuttered since 2003.
-
- Petray expects the plant to reach full capacity by 2006,
he said. Once restarted, the company's production capacity will rise to
10,000 metric tons.
-
- Current aspartame production is estimated to be in the
range of 16,000 metric tons and 16,500 metric tons, Petray said.
-
- NutraSweet isn't alone in boosting capacity of aspartame.
Japan's Ajinomoto Co. also announced capacity expansions at its plants
in Yokkaichi, Japan, and Gravelines, France.
-
- According to LMC, the additional capacity may mean an
aspartame price war is imminent.
-
- "To fill the Augusta plant plus our Korean plant
will mean we will need to price aspartame more aggressively," Petray
said.
-
- Petray estimates about 80 percent of its aspartame is
used by beverage manufacturers such as Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc., and
Cadbury-Schweppes PLC.
-
- In 2004, sales of diet soft drinks increased faster than
regular drinks. According to data collected by Beverage Digest/Maxwell,
sales volume for the leading U.S. diet soda, Diet Coke, rose 5 percent
last year. Diet Pepsi volume climbed 6.7 percent, and Diet Dr Pepper rejoined
the top 10 best-selling soft drinks with a 16.2 percent increase, according
to Beverage Digest.
-
- Responding to these trends, manufacturers are bringing
out new drinks sweetened with sucralose, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium,
or Ace-K.
-
- Petray said he expects the addition of new products such
as Cherry Vanilla Diet Dr Pepper and Coke Zero will help sustain the growth
of diet soft drinks this year.
-
- Still, much consumer attention is still being heaped
on Splenda, or sucralose, which is made by Tate & Lyle PLC of Britain.
-
- As a tabletop sweetener, Splenda is marketed by McNeil
Nutritionals, a unit of Johnson & Johnson based in Fort Washington,
Pa., and its success has been remarkable. Splenda has become the leading
artificial sweetener sold in the United States for tabletop use.
-
- As an ingredient in foods and beverages, Splenda also
is showing growing appeal, particularly among consumers over age 40. The
list of manufacturers creating products with Splenda continues to grow
and now includes Pepsi One, which has been reformulated with Splenda, as
well as a new Splenda-sweetened version of Diet Coke.
-
- It is too soon to know if these Splenda-based products
will steal market share from other diet drinks on the market, which are
mostly sweetened with aspartame.
-
- In the short run, Splenda's success could create a new
opportunity for NutraSweet. NutraSweet has been marketing neotame, another
intense sweetener it manufactures, for use blended with other sweeteners.
-
- For example, Thirst Rockers, a juice drink made for grocer
Kroger Co., contains a mix of neotame and sugar.
-
- NutraSweet is a privately held company, with most of
the shares in the hands of Boston-based J.W. Childs Associates LP.
-
-
- http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/
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