Dairy consolidation hits home

Dairy Foods,  Nov, 2007  by David Phillips

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

For the last couple of years November has been designated the "New" month at Dairy Foods. The November issue focuses on the best new dairy products of the year, recognition of a New Product Company of the Year, and articles about new ingredients and new equipment.

More than ever, we've got some new things to tell you about.

The new products are here again--selected by Dairy Foods staff and industry insiders and described by Product Development Editor Donna Berry. There are eight product lines this year, and the unifying theme is that each has been developed for a target demographic. This year's New Product Company is WhiteWave, the Colorado-based value-added subsidiary of Dean Foods. White Wave has been busy lately with new offerings from its Horizon Organic, Land O'Lakes, Rachel's and Hershey's lines.

Inside this issue you will also find a new equipment showcase, with the latest offerings from the industries equipment suppliers. If you didn't make it to World Wide Food Expo, this will give you a chance to do a little shopping, with our new ingredients profiles.

Perhaps the most surprising new thing we'll tell you about this month has nothing to do with any particular dairy processors, but is instead related to Dairy Foods itself. If you have not yet heard the news about Dairy Foods and longtime rival Dairy Field coming together, check out the story on page 15. In a nutshell, our parent company, BNPMedia recently acquired a group of publications including Dairy Field. The acquisition has resulted in the most complete group of trade publications covering the food industry as a whole and numerous segments within the food business including bakery, candy, meat and poultry, snacks and beverages.

What this means for the dairy publications is that starting in January, the best elements of Dairy Field will now appear as a special section in each issue of Dairy Foods. It also means that my Dairy Field counterpart, Jim Dudlicek is joining the Dairy Foods staff. Many of you have gotten to know Jim in the five years since he began working with the industry. He's an old newspaper guy (hence a member of a fine fraternity) and more than anything, that means he knows how to identify and tell a story. If you don't know Jim I can tell you that he is a true pro, and decent person, as well. We are very pleased to have him join our team.

What this adds up to for you, is that with one email or phone call, you can now be connected to a single media source covering your industry. Also, you'll get just a single request for information for features like our Dairy 100 and our annual Ice Cream Outlook. It means that you won't have two admittedly very similar magazines hitting your desk each month, but will instead have one that offers a little bit more. We'll tell you more about that in the coming issues.

Now I would guess that most of our readers know a little bit about consolidation, and many of you may have first hand knowledge of what it's like to suddenly join hands with your competitor. So you shouldn't be surprised to hear that we expect to find some synergies in a single combined publication that will result in our having more resources so that we can ultimately do more of the things we want to do to help you succeed. The experience will be a new one for most of us involved here at Dairy Foods, so bear with us, and if you have any suggestions, please let us know.

David Phillips, Chief Editor of Dairy Foods can be reached at 630/694-4341 or phillipsd@dairyfoods.com.

COPYRIGHT 2007 BNP Media
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning