SupplySide News

Ranir Wins Awards

Ranir LLC, a leading manufacturer of store brand oral care products in North America, was presented with two awards at the 2007 CVS Brand Supplier Summit. For the second year in a row, Ranir was given the Supply Chain Support award based on its collaborative partnership with CVS and its ability to consistently meet or exceed CVS customer service expectations throughout the year. In addition, Ranir won the Innovation award for implementing the ideas of the CVS Store Brands team and bringing to CVS new ideas and product innovations from all over the world.

Marfrig’s First U.S. Acquisition

The Marfrig Group (MRFG3.SA), one of the largest producers of beef and beef by-products in South America, announced that it has acquired a 100% stake in Mirab SA, the world’s largest private label beef jerky supplier and its subsidiary, Mirab USA located in Taylor, Michigan. The total value of the agreement was not disclosed. Mirab USA located in Taylor, Michigan, U.S.A., serves as the packaging, distribution and worldwide sales headquarters for Mirab SA and has the capacity to pack more than 2.5 million packages, or more than half a million pounds of beef jerky per month. Mirab provides private label beef jerky and its branded beef jerky–Rancher’s Brand, Pecos Bill’s and Farmers Market–to customers in the United States of America, Canada, Japan and Europe.

The Marfrig Group already has a network of thirty-one abattoirs in Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina. In addition to strengthening Mirab SA’s current operations in Argentina, The Marfrig Group will now use Mirab USA to distribute its many beef and beef by-products to customers, further increasing its presence throughout the globe.

LiDestri Recieves Leadership Award

The Daymon Worldwide team at Wegmans presented LiDestri Foods with an “Outstanding Leadership Award for Innovation.” This was only the third time that Daymon has given out this award.

LiDestri was honored for the development of Wegmans “Jammin” Organic Fruit Spread, which was inspired from a unique product made in small batches by Trappist monks in France. After experiencing this fruit spread on a visit to Europe, Wegmans chief executive officer Danny Wegman brought back samples and challenged his team to develop a similar spread.

On a tour of the LiDestri plant, Wegmans Chef Kurt Kulzer determined that their equipment was capable of producing this type of fruit spread and asked the supplier to manufacture the product. LiDestri obliged and with much success, Jammin made its debut. Both companies are thrilled with the taste of this product.

Goodbye Latex

The Clean Ones Ultimate Household Glove is a great addition to complete any glove section. Latex allergy concerns are a hot topic among consumers. As a serious concern, many consumers are avoiding latex products altogether. This latex free vinyl dermatologist recommended glove is lined with rayon for the “ultimate” in supreme comfort and is also treated with a natural anti-bacteria agent.
For more information visit: www.cleanones.com

Optima Group Creates CFL1 Machine

For small-scale producers of coffee portion packs, Optima Group Consumer has created the new CFL1 machine for soft pods and espresso pods.

The machine produces 75 pods per minute in a compact linear, single-lane paper pod handling configuration. The machine can also be rapidly changed over to allow for espresso pods to be manufactured.

For more information visit: www.optima-usa.com.

RPI Receives Certification

Robinson Pharma Inc., (RPI) announced that it successfully completed an audit for cGMP compliant manufacture of dietary supplements. The Audit was performed by Shuster, a leading third party testing and quality assurance auditing firm. RPI, the leading soft gel manufacturer in North America, has experienced record growth over the past year and, as part of it its expansion plan, has gained authoritative certification that it complies with cGMP manufacturing standards for dietary supplements.

The Shuster quality systems audit covered all aspects of the manufacturing process and was performed by credentialed experts in quality analysis. Shuster analyzed the RPI Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs), staff qualifications, training program, facility adequacy and cleanliness. All aspects of the manufacturing process were reviewed including receipt and validation of ingredients, the production process, post production product analysis, product handling, packaging, storage, and record keeping. Robinson Pharma Inc., which was recently granted a drug manufacturing license by the state of California, was shown to be in compliance with standards used by Shuster to evaluate a companies’ compliance with cGMP standards for dietary supplements.

For more information visit www.RobinsonPharma.com.

Michelina’s Changes Name

In order to better reflect the various aspects of its diversified and growing business, in September 26th 2007, Michelina’s Inc. changed its name to Bellisio Foods, Inc. The company chose Bellisio Foods, Inc., which translates as “the beautiful foods company,” because they believe it justly represents their founder, history and inspiration.

Michelina’s will remain the name of their flagship brand, however, they are offering other brands such as their food service Fusion Culinary products and many private label foods. This year, other new brands will also be introduced.