Bega wins Kraft Heinz case
Bega Cheese has won its long-running Federal Court battle with the former global owner of its grocery goods division, Kraft Heinz.
After selling its peanut butter, Vegemite and sauces business Mondelez Australia to Bega in 2017, Kraft Heinz challenged Bega to stop marketing the peanut butter range in the existing "trade dress" packaging - yellow lidded jars and labels with a blue or red peanut image on the label.
The Federal Court rejected the Kraft Heinz claim to the legal rights over the peanut butter trade dress.
It declared the US company's continued use of the same packaging on its own products was misleading or deceptive under Australian law.
Bega management said it looked forward to continuing production and supply of its "much loved peanut butter" as it had been doing since 2017, and it was proud to have bought the grocery business.
"Our factory at 1 Vegemite Way, Port Melbourne will continue to produce Australia's favourite peanut butter as it has done for 55 years."
Ag, regional news changes hands
The Nine Entertainment media group will sell its 170 regional and rural newspapers for $115 million to one of its prominent shareholders, Antony Catalano, and Thorney Investment Group.
The Australian Community Media division, part of Fairfax Media until last December' Fairfax-Nine merger, includes a national suite of agricultural mastheads such as FarmOnline, The Land and Queensland Country Life, plus metropolitan titles The Canberra Times, and Newcastle Herald.
The sale is due to be completed by June 30 and a new company name is on the cards.
Mr Catalano, who previously ran Fairfax Media's online real estate business, Domain, had unsuccessfully attempted to block last year's merger with the Nine television network while.
"The ACM sale is aligned with our strategy to exit non-core businesses and to focus on Nine's portfolio of high-growth, digital assets," said Nine chief executive, Hugh Marks.
"We will retain a commercial relationship with ACM and look forward to continuing to work with the business in areas where there are mutual benefits to both Nine and ACM."
Mr Catalano described the price as "fair value" and expected newspaper profitability to grow as ACM publications further evolved into digital mastheads.
Mr Catalano identified some of ACM's larger regional publications, including The Canberra Times, Ballarat's The Courier and Albury-Wodonga's The Border Mail, as likely to make key contributions to the business because of the big population bases they served.
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Burrow's Senate tilt
Agribusiness Australia board member and recently retired executive officer, Tim Burrow, is making a federal election play for a South Australian spot in the Senate, standing for the Australian Democrats.
Mr Burrow, who managed the agribusiness lobby body for three years, has had 40 years in the farm sector in Australia and New Zealand, including in senior management roles at Emerald Group, and chemical businesses Chemtura and Monsanto.
His job at Agribusiness Australia has been taken by Liz Baines.
As part of his new political agenda, Mr Burrow wants to see a federal integrity commission established, similar to state independent commissions against corruption.
He said the latest international index of transparency and corruption saw Australia drop to 13th place on a list of 180 countries with a rating score of 77 out of 100.
In 2012 Australia ranked 7th with a score of 85/100.
"Australia urgently needs a federal statutory body with clear responsibility for public sector corruption - we're falling behind as other countries improve their standards of governance," he said
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Tough season for Parmalat
Parmalat Milk profits for the past trading year have been hurt hard by the drought's impact on its farmer suppliers and shrinking milk volumes in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
The Australian division of French-owned Lactalis Group reported an $8.4 million profit in 2018, down almost 75 per cent on the previous year's $30.6m result.
Earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation slumped from $91m in 2017 to $60m last year after costs to suppliers and customers more than doubled.
Revenue from customers levelled out at $1.9b.
Parmalat processes the Pauls milk brand, the Ice Break, Oak and Breaka flavoured milk ranges and Vaalia yoghurt.
To improve its balance sheet, it is investigating selling off some of its regional product distribution sites no longer considered economic to maintain.
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Bubs, Chemist Warehouse deal
Bubs Australia has signed an agreement with the Chemist Warehouse Retail Group, forming a four-year alliance to sell and promote its goat milk-based infant formula and organic baby food and toddler snacks in across the pharmacy chain from June 1.
Chemist Warehouse will also forego the revenue it could have reaped from Bubs' marketing and promotional fees, instead taking up 12.3 million fully paid ordinary shares in the Bubs business.
Chemist Warehouse is Australia's largest pharmacy network by total sales, with 450-plus franchised stores in Australia and New Zealand under Chemist Warehouse and My Chemist banners.
It also acts as a gateway to China for Australian brands with Chemist Warehouse's Tmall Global store now the largest in the world by gross merchandise volume.
Last month Bubs also signed a joint venture deal with Beingmate for marketing and sales distribution of its products plus regulatory support in China, and it began a partnership with Bega Cheese which will produce goat milk infant formula at its Tatura plant in Victoria.