Mrs. Fields To Buy Cookie Man Chain

As  discussed in earlier post  Indian firm was hot favorite to take over  Cookie Man  but finally its was Mrs Fields  which won the bid.
Franchise chain Cookie Man has been rescued from liquidation, with former rival Mrs. Fields acquiring the brand in a deal announced this morning.
Cookie Corporation, with owns the Australian master franchise for Mrs. Fields, will buy the business and tip it into a new subsidiary called Cookie Man Australia. The Cookie Man chain has 43 stores, which are supplied cookies from a manufacturing plant and warehouse in Sydney.
Cookie Corporation will continue to separately operate the Mrs. Fields chain, which has 27 stores. Managing director Andrew Benefield says Mrs, Fields will continue to import its trademark cookies from the United States, although Mrs. Fields will have some access to the Cookie Man manufacturing facility and warehouse, allowing it to develop new products for the Australian market.
Benefield has also brought former Cookie Man owner Peter Elligett on board as general manager of the Cookie Man business, a move Benefield says will be "very popular with Cookie Man franchisees".
Benefield told SmartCompany the two brands can co-exist in the marketplace as separate entities.
"Mrs. Fields is a premium brand with a very specific, soft-baked cookie where Cookie Man has always been popular with kids and senior citizens – it’s a very different market."

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Mrs. Fields to buy collapsed Cookie Man chain - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany

Honey Top To Invest In Indian New Factory At Nasik

Chapatis and Naan have  been popular overseas with  Asian expat communities . HoneyTop Speciality foods is now coming up with automated plant in India to launch   ready  to serve  chapatis and naan  . It would be interesting  to see Indian consumer response to such product  as Indians  still prefer  fresh prepared food  to  ready  to serve items.

Honeytop Speciality Foods has invested £3m to build a new factory in India that will supply naan bread and chapattis to India and the wider Asian and Australian markets.

The new 8,000m2 factory - located in Nasik, about 150km north of Mumbai - will initially employ 100 people and is due to open in the second quarter of 2011.

Europe's leading producer of naans and flatbreads and a major supplier of own-label breads to the UK multiples, Dunstable-based Honeytop exports to 10 European markets with overseas sales now accounting for 15% of turnover.

However, this is the first time it has expanded its manufacturing footprint overseas, md David Laurence told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “It’s the bakery equivalent of taking coals to Newcastle, but we believe our naan bread is so good that it will find a ready market with Indian consumers



source
http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk