Chapter Five : Industry and
Marketplace
5.1 The Industry
5.1.1 Definition of the industry
The Food and Beverage Industry covers a wide aspect of retail businesses in the world as a large share of the market consists of businesses that are involved with chain restaurants, cafes, food outlets and many more. The Food and Beverages sector is one of the most important industries in the world and contributes greatly in every country’s growth of economy and developments.
The Food and Beverage Industry is worth approximately US 4.22 billion and employs about 4.4 million people working in Europe Union alone. The structure of the sector is composed of large companies on one hand and a mass of small and medium companies on the other. Establishments in this subsector have special equipment (e.g., freezers, refrigerated display cases, refrigerators) for displaying food and beverage goods. They have staff trained in the processing of food products to guarantee the proper storage and sanitary conditions required by regulatory authority. Food and beverages are further subdivided into nine groups covering meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, fats, dairy products, grain mill, starch products and prepared animal feeds.
5.2.1 Shape of the industry
Out of the nine categories, dairy products holds the biggest share of the industry’s market, as shown below, and the leading brand that upholds the dairy industry is Nestle, with Unilever gaining close behind.
Through the growth of sales in dairy products, frozen dessert tapped in the market and starts to shape the communities in all countries including Malaysia. The demand for frozen desserts such as ice-cream and yoghurt is reflected not only in increased plant capacity and total production but also in the increasing proportion of the total milk supply being diverted to the manufacture of frozen dairy products. In 1930, 3.1 percent or 353.5 million gallons of milk went into frozen dairy products : in 1960 the figures were 7.9 percent and 1,100.3 million gallons. That said, no other major dairy product has achieved this growth of rate before.
If there is anything that can be counted on in the frozen dessert industry, it is that everything old will be new again. Consumers will demand diet products, then reject them, then rediscover them; frozen novelties will get bigger, than smaller, then bigger again; frozen custard will sink into near oblivion over the years, only to remerge as a steadily growing category with "authenticity." So it should be no surprise that frozen yogurt has become the most competitive category in the industry, replicating the exciting period in the late 1970s and early 1980s when ice cream shops and packaged ice cream manufacturers were falling over each other in the rush to bring their own frozen yogurts to market. Leading the charge are new brands like Red Mango, Pinkberry, Yolato, and 0ko; as well as a revitalized TCBY, one of the few survivors of the earlier frozen yogurt explosion.
The current frozen yogurt revival, still relatively new, differs from the category's explosion in the late 1970s when the product was essentially positioned as a low fat and no fat alternative to ice cream. This time around, frozen yogurts are being sold on the basis of their health value, specifically due to the presence of live probiotic cultures. (9/07 ICR)
