The Tayto man goes abroad

In the Largo Foods HQ, outside Ashbourne, Co Meath, boxes of crisps are waiting for dispatch to places such as Italy and California - all orders received online by Largo, the snack company headed by Ray Coyle which bought the Tayto brand from C&C back in 2006 for €62m. The orders don't have any significant impact on overall sales numbers, but do serve as a reminder that for Largo's business to grow, Mr Coyle and his team have to look outside Ireland, where Tayto's decades-long dominance has been eroded by Pepsico's Walkers crisps and Procter & Gamble's Pringles (although a UK court ruled this year that Pringles are not crisps due to their lower, 42% potato content -- a decision that will save P&G millions of euro a year in tax).

Tayto did not adequately or rapidly respond to the threat from Walkers, which today has a 26% share of the Irish crisp market. The Largo group has a 47% share of the Irish crisp and snack market, with Tayto accounting for 28% of the crisp market, and King 11%. Largo's home-grown brands, including Hunky Dorys, do reasonably well with a 13% share of the crisp market, but it's Tayto that is so far demonstrating it could have the legs to travel much further afield than Europe.

Source: The Irish Independent

Honey makes the world go round

An article from the BBC examines the economic consequences of the huge drop in the global bee population. As they explain, the phenomenon is far more serious than simply a rise in honey prices.

"Bees not only produce honey, they pollinate many of the plants and vegetation which we then go on to consume. And the continental breakfast? Well, bees pollinate almond trees, so if bees were to die out, the almond filling for our croissants would disappear. The one-euro cup of coffee would suddenly rocket in price, as would the orange juice, because bees pollinate the majority of coffee plants and orange trees. Even milk would be more difficult to come by, because bees pollinate most types of animal feed, and the alternatives dairy farmers would have to use, probably cereals, are far more expensive. The threat to breakfast is very real. The bee population of Europe has been falling at an alarming rate. In the UK, it dropped by around 30% between 2007 and 2008, according to the British Bee Keepers Association. Scientists thinks bees ae dying off due to something called the varroa mite. They suck the blood of infected insects, weakening their immune systems. However, it is thought there may be other pressures on bees, including some pesticides and the prolonged spells of wet weather which have been seen during the last two European summers".

Further evidence, if it were needed, came yesterday when it was announced that Canada produced 62 million Ibs of honey this year, down 10% from the 69 million Ibs produced in 2007. The average yield per colony was only 106 Ibs, more than 10 Ibs less than last year.

Full BBC article

Chinese Toymakers Feeling the Crunch.

The 4c students may recall on Thursday, while we were looking at factors which can shift a supply curve, I mentioned how Chinese toy exporters were being put under so much strain that half of them have gone bust in 2008. The reasons behind the failures are weaker demand from the US, a stronger Chinese currency and tougher safety standards.

Here's the BBC news report on it.
If you'd prefer to read the report, it's here.