About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2018)
Jeff Gill | Business reporter 770-718-3408 | jgill@gainesvilletimes.com The Times, Gainesville, Georgia Saturday, December 1,2018 CE73 business Big businesses in disguise Wildscape protein bowls are produced by a unit of Nestle, though its affiliation with the food giant is not on the packaging. Major food makers launch stealth small brands’ to lure consumers BY KRISTEN LEIGH PAINTER Tribune News Service Everything about Maker Overnight Oats — the name, the packaging, the founders’ story — screams food startup. The oats come in glass jars. The flavors include mulberry & chia. On its website, the founders’ job titles are “Chief Rain maker” and “Chief Troublemaker.” But Maker is actually the creation of Quaker Oats Co., a unit of PepsiCo, and it’s part of a wave of new products from big food companies that look like they’re from small ones. Golden Valley-based General Mills is the maker of a little-known brand of paleo- certified, grain-free granola products called Autumn’s Gold. Kellogg Co. cre ated Joybol smoothie bowls. Nestle USA created Wildscape, a line of frozen food entrees with ingredients such as freekeh, turmeric farro and the Korean pepper paste gochujang. Food industry consultant Victor Mar tino calls them the “stealth small brands.” In a column for the website Just-Food, he described them as “intentionally designed to look like it comes from a startup.” They represent a minuscule portion of the overall business of the food giants. But their very existence shows that the big- name companies are going to new lengths to compete with startups that are grabbing consumers with innovations in ingredi ents, packaging and stories. Whether people buy these products will largely depend on how genuine their purpose seems, said Susan Viamari, vice president of IRI, a Chicago-based con sumer research firm. “Even if they aren’t truly local brands, they feel more specialized,” Viamari said. In IRI’s most recent Pacesetters report, which analyzes the most successful new products annually, more than a quarter of the top-performing food launches last year were from companies earning less than $1 billion. That’s a steep increase from five years ago when small compa nies held a low double-digit share of the most successful launches, Viamari said. “We are seeing a lot of (consumer) dol lars shift from the traditional large brands to the small and very small brands. A huge factor is that authenticity,” she said. “There’s a lot more riding on a brand’s ability to address very personalized con sumer needs ... really just zeroing in on the things that matter to the individual consumer.’ Large food companies constantly launch new products. Many are offshoots of existing popular items, like General Mills’ Cheerios Oat Crunch. Others come through acquisition, like Epic Provisions, a small Texas company General Mills acquired in 2016. This new method emulates the look and feel of a startup, often with no visible con nection to the big brand behind it. And for the most part, it seems the big companies don’t want to talk about such efforts. PepsiCo declined to answer questions for this article. Maker Overnight Oats is a part of its in-house incubator called the Hive, which creates new brands and builds others that it acquired. In a news release this summer, Pep siCo described the Hive as a place where ideas developed by employees and out side experts get to market faster. “We will channel that experience in this team to act with the agility of a small com pany, but with access to the knowledge, scale and resources of PepsiCo,” Seth Kaufman, a PepsiCo president, said at the time. Other packaged food companies have launched similar in-house innovation hubs to identify new trends and create corresponding food offerings. Separately, many of these large com panies have established venture capital units, like General Mills’ 301 Inc, which invests in outside, early stage companies that could be a potential acquisition in the future. But the Autumn’s Gold business is different. The company developed the paleo-certified line and has developed limited distribution for it through Costco and Amazon. Autumn’s Gold isn’t on Gen eral Mills’ list of brands on its website. A small distribution and copyright notice under the ingredient list indicates the brand’s provenance. The company declined an interview request about the brand. In a statement, it said, “At General Mills we bring new brands into our family through a variety of levers.... There isn’t one single strategy or approach that we take for every new idea or brand concept.... It’s important to have multiple types of innovation and always experiment to increase our odds of success and fuel sustainable growth.” MARK LENNIHAN I Associated Press Aldi’s Wine Advent Calendar is displayed, Nov. 26, in New York. Advent calendars change up treats BY JOSEPH PISANI Associated Press NEW YORK — Advent calendars, typically filled with chocolates, are now being stuffed with cans of beer and bottles of wine. Others have chunks of cheese behind each door. They’re meant to appeal to nostalgic adults who want to count the days till Christmas with something other than sweets. They’re sold for a limited time, get major social media buzz and tend to sell out quickly. Many are available in the United States for the first time this year after gaining popu larity during the past few holiday seasons in Europe. German grocer Aldi, for instance, says it brought its wine advent calendar to its U.S. stores after selling it in the United Kingdom last year. It also introduced a new cheese one. Dara Collins waited outside an Aldi store before 9 a.m. in early November to buy the advent calendars after she saw them on Twit ter. One had 24 mini bottles of prosecco and pinot grigio for $69.99. The cheese one, which cost $12.99, had rectangular-shaped Cheddar and havarti. Collins didn’t wait to open them: She drank a bottle of bubbly wine and ate a piece of cheese weeks before Dec. 1. Adult advent calendars fit into an ongoing trend: people who want products and experi ences that “let them embrace their inner child,” says Caleb Bryant, a senior beverage analyst at trend-tracking firm Mintel. “Kids don’t need to have all the fun with advent calendars,” he says. Ian Hamilton, a radio producer in Manches ter, England, bought a cheese advent calendar last year and tweeted that it was “probably the best day of my life.” “Chocolate was getting a little bit boring,” Hamilton says. One sour note: unlike the chocolate ones, the cheese advent calendar needs to be chilled, so he had to pull it out of the fridge each time to show it off to guests. He still bought another one this year: “I definitely don’t want to miss out.” The inventor of the cheese calendar is Annem Hobson, who credits herself with creating it back in 2015 when she deconstructed a Cadbury one and replaced the chocolates with Gouda and German smoked cheese. “I’ve always been a fan of savory things,” says Hobson. Ex-US official admits charges linked to Malaysian scandal BY MICHAEL BALSAM0 Associated Press WASHINGTON - A former Jus tice Department official admitted his role Friday in a multimillion- dollar effort to try to get the United States to drop its investigation into a money laundering and bribery scheme that pilfered billions from a Malaysian investment fund. George Higginbotham’s guilty plea in federal court in Washington marked the first public acknowl edgement of an attempt to pressure American officials to drop their probe of the fund known as 1MDB. The massive corruption investi gation, which upended Malaysian politics, spanned the globe with the money from the fund gambled in Las Vegas, spent on diamond jew elry and a luxury yacht and used to finance the “Wolf of Wall Street” and other Hollywood productions. The long-ruling coalition in Malay sia was ousted in a May election, and then-Prime Minister Najib Razak, who set up the fund, now faces criminal charges there. Prosecutors say Higginbotham, who worked on the congressional affairs staff in the Justice Depart ment’s Office of Justice Programs, helped open bank accounts and cre ated false loan documents for shell companies to pay an influential person to pressure officials to drop their probe. That person’s identity wasn’t revealed in court. Authorities allege that Higgin botham’s efforts were also meant to conceal the involvement of an unidentified co-conspirator, who prosecutors say was an architect of 1MDB and because of that, banks wouldn’t do business with him directly. Higginbotham admitted in court that bank accounts and shell companies were set up in 2017 because the influential person didn’t want to be directly tied to the co-conspirator. Higginbotham falsely claimed in emails to banks that the money was used to fund entertainment ventures and failed to disclose that it was being used to finance the lob bying effort to shut down the 1MDB investigation, prosecutors said. Higginbotham also traveled to a foreign country to meet with that co-conspirator and was ultimately paid $70,000 for his involvement, authorities said. Higginbotham would not answer questions as he left court Friday. Authorities say Higginbotham was also part of an effort to try to have a foreign national, who had been critical of his home country and was in the U.S. on a visa, thrown out of America and sent back to his nation. Prosecutors charge that Higginbotham met with the ambas sador of that country and told them he was acting personally and not on behalf of the Justice Department, but that the U.S. government was working on expelling the person. Higginbotham told the judge that $41 million placed in an escrow account was supposed to be paid out to the politically connected per son once the foreign national was removed from the U.S. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said Higginbotham likely faced a sentence of up to 16 months in federal prison, but said he could also face no jail time. As part of a plea deal, Higginbo tham has agreed to testify before grand juries and speak to federal investigators. Higginbotham pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to make false statements to a bank and was released without bail on Friday. He is due back in court in March. Stock Exchange Highlights I NYSE 12,457.55 +68.18 I Nasdaq 7,330.54 +57.45 Gainers ($2 or more) Name Last Chg %Chg EQTGPn 20.02 UnivTInst 3.22 Cosan Ltd 8.89 KimbRoyn 18.30 Dycom 66.26 JAlexHId n 10.22 BiohvnPh n 33.99 ChinaYuch 14.05 Ampco 4.30 CmtyHIt 4.75 +3.00 +17.6 +.42 +15.0 +.80 +9.9 +1.46 +5.23 +.81 +2.41 +.97 +.29 +.31 +8.7 +8.6 +8.6 +7.6 +7.4 +7.2 +7.0 Losers (S2 or more) Name Last Chg %Chg VivintSolar 5.47 Yext n 14.52 AmTrFn 55 17.42 AmTrFn 7.518.00 Frontlne rs 7.26 KeyEngy 5.83 X Finl n 7.00 Navios pfG 4.91 LabCp 145.64 Maiden pfC 10.00 -1.53 -21.9 -3.69 -20.3 -3.27 -15.8 -3.15 -14.9 -.86 -10.6 -.67 -10.3 -.80 -10.3 -.55 -10.1 -16.17 -10.0 -1.10 -9.9 Most Active ($1 on more) Name Vol (00) Last Chg GenElec 1869295 AT&T Inc 804517 BkofAm 642364 Pfizer 427298 LambWst n 393843 NY CmtyB 390151 FordM 362554 Alibaba 350222 VerizonCm 311376 ChesEng 310235 7.50 -.44 31.24 +.67 28.40 +.36 46.23 +.72 76.70 -.04 10.63 +.07 9.41 +.04 160.86 +4.58 60.30 +.85 2.92 -.11 Diary Advanced Declined Unchanged Total issues New Highs New Lows Volume 1,546 1,277 75 2,898 53 229 4,606,354,753 Gainers ($2 or more) Name Last Chg %Chg BorqsTch 5.70 AdialPh n 3.84 Ambarella 39.99 IntecPhm n 6.92 Gamida n 15.41 ICAD 4.34 Greenpro n 2.77 MarinSft rs 2.83 Workday 164.00 CideraTh n 3.64 +3.14+122.7 +1.04 +37.1 +6.24 +18.5 +1.01 +17.1 +1.87 +13.8 +.52 +13.6 +.33 +13.3 +.33 +13.2 +18.70 +12.9 +.41 +12.7 Losers ($2 or more) Name Last Chg %Chg TonixP hrs 5.19 AeroViron 76.60 Sphr3D grs 5.26 RevenFlo n 2.97 Sprouts 23.02 AridisPh n 10.60 TenaxTh rs 2.16 Windstm rs 3.01 Uxin Ltd n 3.29 CitiTrends 20.50 -1.78 -25.5 15.08 -16.4 -1.02 -16.2 -.55 -15.6 -4.01 -14.8 -1.80 -14.5 -.32 -12.9 -.37 -10.9 -.39 -10.6 -2.37 -10.4 Most Active ($1 or more) Name Vol (00) Last Chg AMD Maximlntg Intel Cisco Apple Inc Comcast s Microsoft DiambkEn SiriusXM MicronT 820980 557217 432759 415950 394125 380532 336414 330238 322838 281079 21.30 55.92 49.31 47.87 178.58 39.01 110.89 110.38 6.23 38.56 -.13 +.58 +1.61 +.53 -.97 -.41 +.70 -1.62 -.09 +.65 Diary Advanced Declined Unchanged Total issues New Highs New Lows Volume 1,643 1,334 128 3,105 48 105 2,496,079,042 Stocks of Local Interest Name Ex YTD Div Yld PE Last Chg %Chg AFLAC S 1.04 2.3 14 45.74 +.34 0.0 HomeDp 4.12 2.3 20 180.32 +4.66 -4.9 AT&T Inc 2.00 6.4 6 31.24 +.67 -19.7 Intel 1.20 2.4 18 49.31 +1.61 +6.8 AbbottLab 1.12 1.5 31 74.05 +.79 +29.8 IBM 6.28 5.1 9 124.27 +2.79 -19.0 AMD 21.30 -.13+107.2 JohnJn 3.60 2.5 21 146.90 +1.05 +5.1 Altria 3.20 5.8 17 54.83 -1.11 -23.2 LambWst n .77 1.0 26 76.70 -.04 +35.9 Annaly 1.20 12.0 11 10.04 -.02 -15.6 Lowes 1.92 2.0 21 94.37 +1.17 +1.5 Apple Inc 2.92 1.6 18 178.58 -.97 +5.5 Maximlntg 1.84 3.3 22 55.92 +.58 +7.0 ATMOS 1.94 2.0 18 95.67 +2.22 +11.4 McDnlds 4.64 2.5 29 188.51 +.41 +9.5 AutoZone 17 809.07 16.76 +13.7 Merck 2.20 2.8 30 79.34 +1.43 +41.0 AveryD 2.26 2.3 28 96.40 +1.07 -16.1 MicronT 3 38.56 +.65 -6.2 BB&T Cp 1.62 3.2 15 51.10 +.50 +2.8 Microsoft 1.84 1.7 46 110.89 +.70 +29.6 BP PLC 2.38 5.9 12 40.35 -.13 -4.0 NY CmtyB .68 6.4 13 10.63 +.07 -18.4 BkofAm .60 2.1 13 28.40 +.36 -3.8 NorflkSo 3.20 1.9 26 170.74 +2.30 +17.8 BarnesNob .60 7.9 7.57 +.35 +13.0 OfficeDpt .10 3.1 9 3.23 -.06 -8.8 Boeing 6.84 2.0 32 346.76 +4.20 +17.6 Oracle .76 1.6 52 48.76 +.86 +3.1 BrMySq 1.60 3.0 53 53.46 +1.64 -12.8 Penney 1.43 -54.7 CSX .88 1.2 10 72.63 +.86 +32.0 PepsiCo 3.71 3.0 35 121.94 +3.67 +1.7 CampSp 1.40 3.6 14 39.20 -.43 -18.5 Pfizer 1.36 2.9 18 46.23 +.72 +27.6 Caterpillar 3.44 2.5 13 135.67 +5.44 -13.9 PhilipMor 4.56 5.3 21 86.53 -.43 -18.1 ChesEng 5 2.92 -.11 -26.3 Primerica 1.00 .8 14 118.88 -.25 +17.1 Chevron 4.48 3.8 25 118.94 +.09 -5.0 ProctGam 2.87 3.0 23 94.51 +1.69 +2.9 Cisco 1.32 2.8 24 47.87 +.53 +25.0 RegionsFn .56 3.4 14 16.45 +.24 -4.8 Citigroup 1.80 2.8 11 64.79 -.11 -12.9 SiriusXM .05 .8 35 6.23 -.09 +16.2 CocaCola 1.56 3.1 95 50.40 +1.42 +9.9 SouthnCo 2.40 5.1 22 47.33 +.79 -1.6 Comcast s .76 1.9 19 39.01 -.41 -2.2 Starbucks s1.44 2.2 30 66.72 -.16 +16.2 ConAgra .85 2.6 16 32.34 +.07 -14.1 Stericycle 48.07 -.14 -29.3 Cummins 4.56 3.0 42 151.06 +2.86 -14.5 SunTrst 2.00 3.2 11 62.69 +.20 -2.9 DiambkEn .50 .5 19 110.38 -1.62 -12.6 SynovusFn 1.00 2.6 13 37.81 +.28 -21.1 Disney 1.76 1.5 16 115.49 -1.12 +7.4 3M Co 5.44 2.6 29 207.92 +3.36 -11.7 DowDuPnt 1.52 2.6 18 57.85 +.61 -18.8 Torchmark .64 .7 7 86.41 -.91 -4.7 EnCana g .06 .9 11 6.72 -.25 -49.6 Twitter 31.45 +.15 +31.0 Equifax 1.56 1.5 18 102.67 -.13 -12.9 Tyson 1.20 2.0 11 58.95 +1.23 -27.3 ExxonMbl 3.28 4.1 15 79.50 +.44 -4.9 UtdCmBks .64 2.5 15 25.85 +.59 -8.1 Facebook 26 140.61 +1.93 -20.3 UPS B 3.64 3.2 19 115.29 +2.03 -3.2 FordM .60 6.4 5 9.41 +.04 -24.7 VerizonCm 2.41 4.0 8 60.30 +.85 +13.9 GenElec .48 6.4 7.50 -.44 -57.1 Vodafone 1.74 8.1 21.49 +.18 -32.6 GenuPrt 2.88 2.8 22 103.71 +.62 +9.2 WalMart 2.08 2.1 56 97.65 +.36 -1.1 HP Inc .64 2.8 7 23.00 +.14 +9.5 Weathflntl .57 -.04 -86.3 Haverty .72 3.5 21 20.49 -.04 -9.5 WeisMk 1.24 2.7 11 45.80 -1.61 +10.7 HeliosM rs .02 -.00-100.0 WellsFargo 1.72 3.2 13 54.28 +.24 -10.5 Hershey 2.89 2.7 24 108.30 +.85 -4.6 YumBrnds 1.44 1.6 33 92.22 +.36 +13.0 Name Ex YTD Div Yld PE Last Chg %Chg Stock Footnotes: g = Dividends and earnings in Canadian dollars, h = Does not meet continued-listing standards. If = Late filing with SEC. n = New in past 52 weeks, pf = Preferred, rs = Stock has undergone a reverse stock split of at least 50 percent within the past year, rt = Right to buy security at a specified price, s = Stock has split by at least 20 percent within the last year, un = Units, vj = In bankruptcy or receivership, wd = When distributed, wi = When issued, wt = Warrants. Fund Footnotes: m - Multiple fees are charged, usually a marketing fee and either a sales or redemption fee. Source: The Associated Press. Sales figures are unofficial. Stock Market Indexes Dow Jones industrials Close: 25,538.46 Change: 199.62 (0.8%) 27,200 26,400 25,600 24,800 25,560 24,900 24,240 10 DAYS J J A S O N 52-Week Net YTD 12-mo High Low Name Last Chg %Chg %Chg %Chg 26,951.81 23,344.52 Dow Industrials 25,538.46 +199.62 +.79 +3.31 +5.39 11,623.58 9,565.44 Dow Transportation 10,820.20 +140.40 +1.31 +1.96 +6.22 773.78 647.81 Dow Utilities 741.92 +12.84 +1.76 +2.56 -3.29 13,637.02 11,820.33 NYSE Composite 12,457.55 +68.18 +.55 -2.74 -1.24 8,133.30 6,630.67 Nasdaq Composite 7,330.54 +57.45 +.79 +6.19 +7.05 1,309.73 1,118.69 S&P 100 1,225.19 +11.49 +.95 +3.55 +5.06 2,940.91 2,532.69 S&P 500 2,760.17 +22.41 +.82 +3.24 +4.46 2,053.00 1,769.25 S&P MidCap 1,878.65 +11.91 +.64 -1.15 -.84 30,560.54 26,293.62 Wilshire 5000 28,448.87 +214.59 +.76 +2.36 +3.65 1,742.09 1,436.43 Russell 2000 1,533.27 +7.88 +.52 -.15 -.24 Mutual Funds Name Total Assets Obj ($Mlns) NAV Total Return/Rank 4-wk 12-mo 5-year Pet Load Min Init Invt Vanguard 500ldxAdmrl LB 247,729 255.78 +2.0 +6.2/A +11.1/A NL 3,000 Vanguard TtlSMIdxAdmrl LB 199,057 68.85 +2.1 +5.6/B +10.6/A NL 3,000 Vanguard TtlSMIdxinv LB 127,316 68.82 +2.1 +5.5/B +10.5/B NL 3,000 Vanguard TtlnSIdxInv FB 126,316 16.11 +1.3 -8.3/B +2.1/B NL 0 Vanguard TtlSMIdxIns LB 119,661 68.86 +2.1 +5.6/B +10.6/A NL 5 000,000 Vanguard Insldxlns LB 116,372 252.35 +2.0 +6.2/A +11.1/A NL 5 000,000 Vanguard InsidxInsPlus LB 101,648 252.37 +2.0 +6.2/A +11.1/A NL100,000,000 Vanguard TtlnSIdxinsPlus FB 94,240 107.77 +1.2 -8.2/B +2.2/B NL100,000,000 Fidelity Contrafund LG 91,385 12.81 +0.7 +6.5/D +11.7/B NL 0 Vanguard TtBMIdxAdmrl Cl 85,528 10.29 +0.5 -1.4/B +2.0/C NL 3,000 Fidelity 500ldxlnsPrm LB 84,712 96.79 +2.0 +6.3/A +11.1/A NL 0 Vanguard WlngtnAdmrl MA 84,654 72.29 +2.0 +2.9/A +7.7/A NL 50,000 Cl -Intermediate-Term Bond, FB -Foreign Large Blend, IH -World Allocation, LB -Large Blend, LG -Large Growth, LV -Large Value, MA -Moderate Allocation, WS -World Stock, Total Return: Chng in NAV with dividends reinvested. Rank: How fund performed vs. others with same objective: A is in top 20%, E in bottom 20%. Min Init Invt: Minimum $ needed to invest in fund. Source: Morningstar.
