Foodmakers cut offerings

[isilzha]

Proof is in the pudding: Foodmakers cut offerings

By EMILY FREDRIX |AP Food Industry Writer

1:47 PM CST, February 16, 2009

MILWAUKEE - If you want to see how the nation's foodmakers are weathering the recession, the proof is in the pudding.

Kraft Foods Inc., the nation's largest food maker, will no longer sell Handi-Snacks pudding to retail customers. At the same time, it's pushing new flavors of its more lucrative Jell-O pudding.

Food companies from Sara Lee Food Corp. to H.J. Heinz Co. are trimming their offerings to focus marketing dollars on their higher-margin, best-selling brands and retain consumers, who are trading down in the recession.

Those top brands are more likely to hold their own, and getting rid of lesser-performing brands helps companies showcase top products as retailers cut inventory. Heinz aims to remove two items for each one it introduces. Downers Grove, Ill.-based Sara Lee hopes to cut its offerings 8 percent this fiscal year.

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[Food Network Fan]

They will probably get rid of everything I like. But then I don't buy many frozen meals and things like that so hopefully I won't miss much. If they still sell flour, milk, butter, eggs, meat and vegetables I think I will do okay.

[Pluff Mudder]

"The more we can simplify, while clearly meeting our customers' needs, the better off we are and the more cost we can drive out of business," he said.

Well, simple is usually better.