2024 – Page 106

CGA by NIQ’s Reports Spirits and Beer Performance in North America

Photo Credit: iStockPhoto.com/portfolio/Kar-Tr

STOCKPORT, Eng. — CGA by NIQ’s new On Premise Measurement (OPM) service in Canada has opened up insights into the market not previously reported on, including valuable comparisons with trends across the border in the U.S., all under one consistent reporting to help tailor strategies to the two territories.

For nearly a decade, OPM has been the U.S. industry standard for brand owners to track their share of the channel. Now launched in Canada, CGA by NIQ brings a new data set for the beverage-alcohol industry to track sales out of the channel to consumers, capturing final purchases made rather than shipment reporting across select provinces all while including competitive information at every level of reporting.

The two OPM datasets are now aligned in the same monthly reporting periods, revealing similarities and differences between the two markets. Here are five data highlights:

More variety in spirits in Canada

Spirits volumes have declined in Canada by 4.1 per cent versus a year ago, which is slightly less than decreases reported in the U.S. (8.4 per cent). However, assortment of spirits categories in Canada present growth opportunities for suppliers.
In the U.S., vodka, tequila and whiskey make up 70 per cent of total sales, but the figure is notably lower in Canada at 51 per cent. This means volumes are spread across more spirits segments, with consumers choosing a greater variety. Despite Canadian and U.S. spirits drinkers having a similar amount of categories in their repertoire, sales patterns highlight differences in each market.

Tequila is the fastest-growing segment

Tequila has been the biggest growth category in both markets in the last year. But while it commands 22 per cent volume share of total spirits in the U.S., it only represents 15 per cent in Canada. Value sales over the last 52 weeks are up by six per cent in Canada, while in the U.S., the category is trending down 3.4 per cent. Over time, tequila consumption in the on premise has made its presence felt in Canada, following it’s fast-paced take-off in the U.S.

Growth in beer imports

Canada’s beer volumes have dropped slightly in the last 12 months, by 1.5 per cent and 6.2 per cent in the U.S. However, imports have bucked the downward trend in both Canada and the U.S. Imports now take 25 per cent of volumes in Canada, having gained 0.7 percentage points of share in the last 12 months, while imports in the U.S. takes 20 per cent of share and gained 0.8 percentage points. As CGA’s recent analysis of the market indicates, the appetite for imports correlates with a trend of choosing quality over quantity in the on premise, as well as the impression that this category offers excellent value for money.

Draft dominates in Canada

While draft beer has a 52 per cent share of volume in the U.S., it’s much higher in Canada at 70 per cent. As draft is a more popular serve in Canada, this also comes with the wider range of draft serve options that are made available to consumers compared to U.S. markets. Additionally, looking at CGA by NIQ’s On Premise User Survey (OPUS) across both countries, Canadians have an 11-per-cent increase in preference for beer served on draft (41 per cent) compared to U.S. consumers (30 per cent).

Gin and rum outperform in Canada

While the U.S. spirits market is top heavy with the three largest segments of vodka, tequila and whiskey, other options command a bigger piece of the category in Canada. These include gin, which has a 14 per cent share of total spirits volumes in Canada, much larger than the figure of four per cent in the U.S. Another being rum, which also has a 14 per cent share in Canada compared to 10 per cent in the U.S. While rum’s volumes are falling, it has been notably more resilient in Canada than the U.S., with respective volume declines of 2.1 per cent and 11.9 per cent over the last 12 months.

There are clear and distinct category performance differences across Canada and the U.S. While it’s easy to use the U.S. as a benchmark for performance in Canada, OPM highlights the need for Canada-specific market measurement to unlock market-level opportunities in the channel.

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Adidas America faces almost $400K in fines over warehouse safety violations

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Adidas America is facing almost $400,000 in penalties for safety violations at an Orange County, New York, warehouse, according to an Aug. 9 news release from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The fine stems from a 2021 OSHA inspection that found a lack of guardrails and an unsafe ladder at one of Adidas’ warehouses exposed employees to potential falls of up to 10 feet. The government agency said it returned in early 2024 to inspect the facility again and found the safety hazards had not been addressed.

“When employers agree to correct a hazard, they must follow through and prove to OSHA that the hazards were addressed,” OSHA Area Director Rita Young said in a statement. “Adidas America Inc. failed to do so, continued to expose their employees to potentially deadly and disabling injuries and are now liable for additional and sizable OSHA penalties.”

The activewear brand’s American business has 15 days to respond to OSHA’s fine, whether they comply with or contest the findings.

“Adidas is committed to the health and safety of our employees,” an Adidas spokesperson said via email. “Our facilities fully adhere to OSHA compliance requirements, and we are working with OSHA to resolve the matter.”

The worker safety penalty comes shortly after Adidas posted a strong second quarter, with sales up 9% and the underlying business improving as it sheds off the final remnants of its Yeezy merchandise. While the company’s business is showing signs of strength after a tumultuous period, North America sales were still down 7% in the quarter due to the impact of Yeezy.

With the loss of that celebrity collaboration, CEO Bjørn Gulden has developed another plan to win in the region, which includes developing products that are more catered to the U.S. audience and leaning into more American sports like baseball and basketball.

“You have to be more American to be successful in America. You have to be in the American sports,” Gulden said on an earnings call in July. “There is a clear, clear, clear plan for how to be more American in America and our product pipeline and our marketing activities are lined up to do that … We have tough competition in the U.S. from American brands, and we have to be better than what we have been before to be successful.”

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Fashion for Good with Georgia Parker: Making fashion packaging more sustainable | Podcast

2024-08-14T11:08:00+01:00

What are the fashion and textiles industry’s biggest problems when it comes to sustainable packaging and where do the solutions lie? To help answer these questions, Victoria Hattersley spoke with Georgia Parker, Innovation Director at Fashion for Good – an organization whose mission is to unite the fashion ecosystem to bring about positive change.

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Consumers see food prices as rising more than other goods and services, find ways to adapt

21 August 2024

5 minute read

More than 80% of consumers perceive that food prices have increased a little or a lot over the last 12 months, according to the May 2024 Consumer Food Insights Report (CFI).

The survey-based report out of Purdue University’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability assesses food spending, consumer satisfaction and values, support of agricultural and food policies and trust in information sources. Purdue experts conducted and evaluated the survey, which included 1,200 consumers across the U.S.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index measure of food inflation shows a 12-month increase in food prices of 2.2%, down from 4.4% a year ago. “While food inflation has slowed in 2024, consumers are feeling the cumulative effect of the high inflation we’ve experienced,” said the report’s lead author, Joseph Balagtas, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue and director of CFDAS.

The May CFI survey asked consumers to report their experiences and responses to rising food prices over the last 12 months. The survey included a question asked previously in February and July 2022, seeing how consumers have adapted their grocery shopping in response to food price inflation.

The researchers found that the most common shopping adaptations to food inflation are seeking out sales and discounts, switching to cheaper and generic brands, and buying fewer nonessential foods like ice cream.

“We also wanted to understand how perceived changes in food prices compare with perceived price changes for other common household expenses,” Balagtas said. “Consumers were more likely to report price increases for food than for any other good or service in the economy.”

Similarly, when asked which goods and services saw the largest year-over-year price increase, 56% of consumers selected “food,” despite official inflation data that show prices of insurance, housing and child care have risen faster than prices for food in the past year. “It’s possible the high frequency with which we shop for food could make higher food prices more salient to consumers. Media attention to food could also play a role,” Balagtas said.

The May survey revisited generational differences analyzed in past reports by categorizing consumers into Gen Z (born after 1996), millennials (born 1981-1996), Gen X (born 1965-1980), and boomer-plus (born before 1965).

“One area where we see bigger generational differences when asking about recent consumer experiences is the source of funding that consumers reported relying on to purchase food,”
Balagtas said. “Around 37% of Gen Z and millennial consumers report drawing on savings or going into debt to finance their food purchases over the past year compared to 28% of Gen X and only 13% of boomer-plus consumers. It is concerning to see over a third of young adults needing to stretch their finances to afford food.”

Food insecurity is highest among Gen Z adults, with around one-third of consumers from this group also reporting having trouble accessing quality food. This is much higher than the rate of food insecurity among older Gen X (13%), and boomer-plus (5%) consumers.

“More research is needed, but these results are likely driven in part by a stage-of-life effect, as income and wealth increase are drivers of food security and tend to increase with age,” Balagtas said.

The April consumer price index measure of food price inflation — the most recent available — remained unchanged from March at 2.2%. The inflation rate seems to have stabilized, having stayed around 2.2% for the last three months, noted Elijah Bryant, a survey research analyst at CFDAS and co-author of the report.

“According to the center’s data, consumer estimates of food inflation over the past year of 6.2% and expectations for the coming year of 3.6% continue to remain higher than the CPI estimate,” Bryant said. This suggests that consumer experiences with food prices have been different than the official measurement.

“Consumers’ inflation estimates continue to hover around 6%, showing that the dramatic increase in food inflation in previous years may still be affecting consumer food price sentiment. However, consumers have been consistently more optimistic about future food prices relative to their inflation estimates over the past 12 months,” Bryant said.

Consumers are asked to allocate 100 points among the six attributes — taste, affordability, nutrition, availability, environmental impact and social responsibility — based on the importance of each in their grocery purchasing decisions. Though CFDAS began measuring food values on a quarterly basis in January 2024, the researchers have yet to observe significant changes in the importance level of these attributes.

“Taste, affordability and nutrition continue to be heavily considered by consumers when making a purchasing decision at the grocery store, whereas environmental impact and social responsibility are of lower importance,” Bryant said. “Americans’ values have proven to be fairly consistent despite changes to the economic landscape over the past couple of years.”

The survey results show generational differences in food values, too, between the younger Gen Z and millennial groups and the oldest boomer-plus group. Younger generations place more value on the environmental and social responsibility of their food when choosing what to buy. Older consumers are more concerned about taste.

The frequency of certain shopping and eating habits also differs across age groups. For instance, younger consumers are more likely to choose nonconventional foods compared to older consumers.

“We see this with organic foods, grass-fed beef, cage-free eggs and plant-based proteins,” Bryant said. However, all consumers regardless of age report checking food date labels often.

“We also observe older consumers report eating unwashed produce, raw dough and rare meat less frequently than younger consumers,” he said. This aligns with differences seen in risk attitudes among consumers of different ages. “Young adults are more willing to take risks with their food than older adults,” Bryant said.

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Industry News for June 22, 2024

he Windsor Court, an elegant escape located in the heart of New Orleans, proudly announces the promotion of Jason Granger to Director of Food & Beverage. With more than 15 years in the hospitality industry specific to food and beverage at The Windsor Court, Granger will continue to cultivate strong relationships while ensuring the legendary essence of The Windsor Court is delivered in all programming, showcasing an authentic New Orleans culture. Granger has led the team in various roles at The Windsor Court since 2009, starting as a server assistant in The Grill Room. Spending time in The Polo Club, Banquets and Le Salon, he was promoted to Outlet Manager and then Director of Public Dining. Thanks to his intimate understanding of The Windsor Court and its offerings as well as his time working alongside the previous Director of Food & Beverage, Granger is thoroughly prepared to lead in his new role.

The Watermark Hotel has welcomed a new sous chef at Wren, Scott Han. The DMV native found his way towards his culinary career by watching PBS cooking shows growing up and was inspired by how food culture could bring people together in happiness. Scott attended and graduated from James Madison University where he earned a degree in biology and worked for government contractors doing research and testing on mosquito borne illnesses. After a time, he decided to follow his passion and turned to the hospitality industry. Scott gained experience and trained for management and worked FOH before moving his feet into the kitchen. After about 15 years in the hospitality industry and 13 of them being in the kitchen, Scott has owned and operated restaurants and was previously featured in The Washington Posts’ “Ultimate Guide to Ramen” for Kizuna.

Hott Off the Presses

Hellmann’s, aka Best Foods west of the Rockies, has teamed up with Chef Matty Matheson to get real about mayo. The “Real Talk with Matty” foodservice campaign kicks off in June with recipe content and a video series in which Chef Matty and guest chefs get real about why Hellmann’s is the ONLY choice when it comes to their recipes (and their reputations). To showcase the versatility and performance of Hellmann’s, Matty developed a custom recipe for operators for a Blackened Shrimp Salad Melt with Zip Zip Sauce featuring Hellmann’s. The blackened shrimp is chopped and tossed with Zip Zip sauce featuring Hellmann’s Mayo, pickled jalapeños, onions, and lemon juice, and then sandwiched between two slices of Monterey Jack cheese on sliced bread. The outer slices of bread get a thin coating of Hellmann’s Mayo before being placed in a preheated pan, mayo-side down, for a perfectly crisp Blackened Shrimp Salad Melt sandwich. Hellmann’s invited guest chefs into the kitchen with Chef Matty Matheson to share recipes and hacks in an online culinary series, “Real Talk with Matty.” The videos feature Matty and guest chefs preparing a notable recipe while discussing why Hellmann’s is an absolutely essential ingredient to consistently deliver superior flavor and performance while also having a positive impact on an operator’s menu and bottom line.

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ADB, Keppel, EnterpriseSG partner to unlock US$800mn in clean energy projects

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is backing efforts by asset manager Keppel and Enterprise Singapore to seek out sustainability-related financing opportunities worth US$800mn across the Asia Pacific region.

Singapore-based Keppel, which specialises in critical infrastructure for clean energy and decarbonisation, announced on August 20 it had signed a memorandum of understanding with ADB and Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), a government agency that supports private sector growth.

The trio plan to explore projects related to decarbonising power generation, electric mobility, green construction and resource recovery from waste. Projects will be funded by blended finance facilities, including concessionary finance from ADB along with private sector investment.

By 2030, the total value of projects supported is expected to exceed US$800mn, Keppel says. Once complete they will abate an estimated 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

“As the global push towards decarbonisation accelerates, the demand for financing to support clean energy transition and environmental projects across the Asia Pacific has never been greater,” says Cindy Lim, chief executive of Keppel’s infrastructure division.

Lim says Keppel will provide technical expertise and ability to mobilise external capital, with ADB offering concessional financing and EnterpriseSG bringing deal-matching and market access.

“Our partnership is uniquely positioned to drive impactful change and help the region achieve green growth,” she says.

Bhargav Dasgupta, ADB’s vice-president for market solutions, adds the development bank “will continue to partner with the private sector on innovative solutions to power the region’s low-carbon future”.

The trio will initially focus efforts on Southeast Asia, though EnterpriseSG plans to connect Keppel to partners in more than 35 overseas markets. The agency will also offer regulatory support and identify further financing resources across its network.

The announcement follows research by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that found development finance support must triple by the 2030s – accompanied by a huge mobilisation of private capital – if net-zero targets are to be met.

The IEA said last month that as much as US$100bn in concessional financing is required in emerging and developing economies by 2050, and that each dollar of concessional financing will have to be matched by US$7 in private capital – up from just 33 cents today.

Keppel says that examining blended finance opportunities will “further improve bankability” and encourage an uptick in private sector investment.

The post ADB, Keppel, EnterpriseSG partner to unlock US$800mn in clean energy projects appeared first on Global Trade Review (GTR).

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Why curbside pickup deserves more love, according to this fast casual

In the early days of the pandemic, every off-premises channel became a lifeline for sales, driving innovation across not just drive thru and delivery but also curbside pickup.

Then attention toward curbside seemed to go away as restaurants re-opened and focused their efforts mostly around delivery and, when possible, drive thru.

Now Denver-based fast casual Teriyaki Madness is hoping to give curbside a little love once again. The 155-unit concept launched Mad Dash, a curbside platform that uses GPS technology to track customers and ensure that employees arrive at the curb 10 seconds before them, order in hand.

“Our food is fresh, it’s made to order, it’s customizable, it just doesn’t lend well to a traditional drive-thru,” said CMO Jodi Boyce. “And so we’re putting a lot of our efforts into bringing curbside back. … I think as an industry, curbside kind of went away a little bit in the last couple of years.”

Boyce joined the latest episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches to talk about the newfound potential in curbside pickup and how it’s helping Teriyaki Madness avoid discounting as it looks to drive more traffic to stores.

In this conversation, you’ll learn more about why:

Curbside is a perfectly suitable alternative to drive-thru

Technology makes curbside far faster and more efficient than drive thru

If you can’t beat third-party delivery players, at least take share from them

Catering is another underappreciated off-premises channel

You shouldn’t pull a Bed Bath & Beyond with your discounting

Frequency, not discounting, is the right tool to help you weather economic woes

Contact Sam Oches at [email protected].

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How Crown Royal Blackberry Became the Hottest Whiskey of 2024

“I have quite literally gotten more calls this year asking about it than Blanton’s.”

What could be this whiskey unicorn that’s causing retailers’ iPhones to vibrate non-stop? The latest tater-ific Weller variant, perhaps? The new Russell’s Reserve 15 Year Old? Some single barrel picks from cult bottler Rare Character?

“The answer to your question isn’t going to be one you’re looking for,” a liquor store worker recently wrote on Reddit, responding to a user’s request for the “most trending” whiskey of 2024. “But the most trendy or hyped bottle this year has been Crown Royal Blackberry.”

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Intentional and Typical

Though Crown Royal Blackberry was announced and released on March 13 of this year, Scott Pascoe says he had customers coming into his South Carolina liquor store looking for it a good two months before then.

“Totally intentional and typical of Diageo, honestly,” he says, referring to the conglomerate that owns the brand and that he believes is able to astroturf hype for certain products by sending bottles to, and sometimes even paying, influencers to post about them on social media before they’re available in stores.

Indeed, if you search TikTok you can find countless, mostly positive reviews of Crown Royal Blackberry posted well before that official release date. Some of these videos are simple tastings, while others include more advanced cocktails created with the product. And then there is general zaniness, like user izzydrinks’ February review in which he mixes the flavored Canadian whisky with Sprite and then stirs it with the foot of a chair. The latter video garnered some 1.1 million views.

Another TikToker went so far as to post 15 different videos featuring Crown Royal Blackberry paired with such offbeat partners as Squirt, Hypnotiq, and Skrewball, leading up to the release day.

“Crown Royal Blackberry is the drink of the SUMMER 🥃☀,” wrote one enthusiastic creator in February, netting 2.4 million views.

In its initial March 13 press release, Diageo even mentioned all this TikTok love, noting, in classic corporate speak, that Crown Royal Blackberry “has already taken social media by storm with consumers +21 sharing their love for the new flavor and exploring their own cocktail innovations.”

(To be clear, it’s not uncommon or even unethical for brands to send new product samples out to both writers and influencers before an official release.)

“Neat, it tastes heavily artificial and even medicinal like cough syrup. Mixed it’s great — I mean it’s low proof and sweet; you can’t really go wrong.”

Whatever the case, and however you want to look at it, just as Diageo had done with Crown Royal Peach — the whiskey unicorn of the year in 2021, of which I was the first to cover — this online tactic has likewise worked extremely well with Crown Royal Blackberry.

“I certainly am getting more calls about Crown Blackberry than other allocations now,” says A.J. (last name withheld for professional reasons), who works at a liquor store in a large college town in Missouri. He notes that it was allocated from the get-go, with his particular store only getting five cases upon release. “I think Diageo is certainly part of the hype,” he adds.

Today, some five months after it was released, Pascoe says he still gets at least five calls a day for Crown Royal Blackberry and it still sells out the second it’s put on shelves. He mostly sees older zoomers and younger millennials buying it, though not of the typical whiskey tater type, he’s quick to note.

For Pascoe’s part, he doesn’t think the liquid lives up to the hype. “If you were ever given Dimetapp as a kid for allergies, you have tasted this foul stuff,” he says.

Low Proof and Sweet — Can’t Go Wrong

Indeed, Crown Royal Blackberry isn’t exciting snobby whiskey fans, nor appearing on online secondary markets where Pappy and bottles from the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection are wheeled and dealed (though it is sold illegally on Craigslist). Neither is it making appearances on the menus at elite cocktail bars across our fair nation.

Nevertheless, it has its diehard fans, as did Crown Royal Peach. “Are you drinking it straight?,” wrote one fan on Reddit, in response to a hater. “If so that’s your problem. It slaps as a mixer hence the popularity.”

“I think all the flavors trend, they’re just seasonal.”

Even whiskey connoisseurs like A.J. see its certain charms. “Neat, it tastes heavily artificial and even medicinal like cough syrup. Mixed it’s great — I mean it’s low proof and sweet; you can’t really go wrong,” he says. “Almost everyone I have sold it to raves about it mixed with lemonade, as per the recipe on the box, which recommends 6 ounces of lemonade to 1 and a half ounces of whiskey.”

Not coincidentally, that’s the same way most of the TikToker influencers chose to drink in their pre-release videos. (Mixed with Sprite is probably the second most common usage on the platform.)

Meanwhile, people clamor for it on forums, message boards, and Reddit. Stores boast about their supply. Residents living in control states like North Carolina and Ohio offer tips for what stores have bottles in stock. It even makes appearances on NSFW corners of the internet.

What else can be said? It’s yet another flavored whiskey hit from Crown Royal and Diageo. Should we be surprised any more?

All the Rage, All the Hype

As I wrote back in 2021, the fervor around Crown Royal Peach “made me explicitly aware that people who write about whiskey and read about whiskey and collect whiskey … are in a serious snob bubble and sometimes not aware what regular people are really drinking these days.”

“We found there was a huge, untapped market for people who aren’t what I like to call ‘flavor snobs,’” Nicky Heckles, former vice president of Crown Royal, told me at the time. (I was unable to speak to her or any one at Diageo for this story.)

A similar, but slightly less viral, example is Buchanan’s Pineapple, another flavored whiskey, this time of the Scotch variety, but also owned by Diageo. Though it goes through spurts of solid sales, it doesn’t touch Crown Royal Blackberry at the moment, according to retailers I spoke to. Still, the mere fact Diageo can turn something as unlikely as a Latin-inspired, pineapple-flavored blended Scotch into a hit speaks to how good the global conglomerate is at crafting flavors, or hype. Or perhaps both.

“I think all the flavors trend, they’re just seasonal,” says A.J., who notes that while Crown Royal Blackberry is ideal for summer, Crown Royal Vanilla and Crown Royal Salted Caramel always pick up in sales once winter comes.

But true unicorns don’t live on seasonal sales alone, and as Pascoe tells me, unlike, say, Pappy Van Winkle or Weller or Blanton’s, Crown Royal Blackberry will lose its hype fairly soon, whether summer ends or not.

“When I first came to work for [the liquor store] a couple of years ago, [Crown Royal] Peach was still all the rage,” he explains. “We would get a case and it was a ‘one bottle per customer’ type of thing. Then one Saturday I get to work, and we had 20 cases of Peach. Ever since then, it barely sells.”

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Ghent, Belgium hosts NMC Regional Meeting

The meeting welcomed 450 participants from 35 countries

21 August 2024

2 minute read

Four hundred fifty milk quality professionals from 35 countries attended the National Mastitis Council (NMC) Regional Meeting, held Aug. 12-14, in Ghent, Belgium, according to a press release from the council. The event attracted udder health researchers, dairy processors, veterinarians, dairy producers, milking equipment dealers and dairy suppliers.

In a captivating first session, Ynte Schukken, chief executive officer at Royal GD in Deventer, the Netherlands, and a professor of management of farm animal health at Wageningen University and professor at Utrecht University’s Veterinary College, addressed udder health challenges for an evolving dairy industry.

“Numerous challenges face the dairy industry that impact udder health,” Schukken said. “Technologies continue to evolve that will help dairy producers reduce antimicrobial use, reduce the industry’s carbon footprint, improve animal welfare and improve cattle life expectancy.”

Additionally, Schukken shared some current research and innovations that are fostering many positive outcomes to improve milk quality, udder health and animal welfare.

Furthermore, the three-day event revolved around the latest updates on mastitis and milk quality – presented by world-renowned mastitis experts. Topics included mastitis diagnostics, employee training and communication, machine learning, dairy equipment automation, data analytics, mastitis monitoring, antimicrobial stewardship, genomics, nutrition, treatment innovation through bacteriophage-derived endolysins and mammary gland immunology.

“This year’s NMC Regional Meeting was truly an unforgettable experience,” said Sarne De Vliegher, NMC Regional Meeting co-organizer and Ghent University, professor in veterinary law, deontology and practice management and M-teamUGent chair. “Speakers shared the latest innovations in the field of mastitis prevention, treatment and control.”

Sofie Piepers, also with the Ghent University, CEO of MEX and meeting co-organizer, added, “These leading udder health experts offered cutting-edge insights in a variety of topics – challenging attendees to ‘up their game’ in improving on-farm milk quality metrics. Plus, some presenters projected future technologies that may lead to enhanced milk quality.”

“Ghent provided a phenomenal setting to help NMC further its global reach,” said NMC president Keith Engel, business development manager – hygiene & milk quality at GEA Farm Technologies. “NMC leaders send a hearty thanks to Sarne and Sofie and their team for organizing an outstanding event that fostered outstanding networking opportunities and future collaborative projects.”

The National Mastitis Council 64th Annual Meeting is scheduled for Jan. 27-30, 2025, in Charlotte, NC, USA. Next year’s NMC Regional Meeting is set for July 22-24, in Rochester, NY, USA.

National Mastitis Council is a non-profit professional organization devoted to reducing mastitis and enhancing milk quality. NMC promotes research and provides science-based information to the dairy industry on udder health, milking management, milk quality, animal welfare and food safety. Founded in 1961, NMC has about 1,000 members in more than 40 countries throughout the world.

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Knockout Butchery breaks ground on new beef plant

ROEBUCK, SC. — Knockout Butchery held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new beef processing facility near Roebuck, SC, on July 29.

Owners Travis and Misty Howard currently operate a facility in Pauline, SC. With the added beef plant, they will quadruple their processing capacity. After the new Knockout Butchery facility opens, they plan to convert their existing facility into a pork processing operation, where local producers can bring their sows to process for resale.

Located off Walnut Grove Road in Spartanburg County, the new facility will be able to process up to 35 head of cattle per week and create between seven and 10 jobs. Knockout Butchery intends to become a USDA-inspected facility.

“This facility is being built by farmers, for farmers,” Travis Howard said. “Our customer base has stood behind us for the past seven years, and that gave us the strength and trust to go forward with all of this.”

The owners invested $2.6 million in the facility, which was supported by a $600,000 grant from the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. It was one of seven beef processing projects to receive funding from the agency in a round of $3.4 million in grants in March 2023.

Knockout Butchery will offer beef cuts as well as custom smoked products, including summer sausage, snack sticks and jerky. The facility will feature a storefront in addition to a venue for butcher and agriculture education.

“Our goal is to keep the younger population interested in where their food comes from, and in farming and agriculture in general,” Misty Howard said. “We’re very excited for what the future holds for us, as well as the hard work we’re willing to put in to give the best service to our farmers and our customers.”

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