B&G Foods Company Profile and SWOT Analysis

B&G Foods is a company, since its beginnings in 1889, that has been devoted to providing quality products for our customers and engaging in high ethical standards in the conduct of the business. The company produces, markets and distributes an assorted collection of shelf-stable foods, frozen foods and household products ("Forbes: #53 B&G Foods", 2015). The company's core values include food safety and quality; integrity and accountability; customer and consumer focus; safety and health at work; collaboration; passion and empowerment (B&G Foods Inc, 2019).

The company has grown primarily due to excellent monitoring of the food market and exercising a strategy to obtain and invest in familiar food brands and making them more relevant in the food market. In doing so, B&G Foods has taken a closer look at global opportunities.

According to "Frozen Food Market By Product (fruits & Vegetables, Dairy, Meat & Seafood), Type (raw Material, Half Cooked), Consumption, Distribution Channel, And Region (north America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, And Mea) - Global Forecast To 2023"(2019), the frozen food market is estimated to have accounted for approximately 9.

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9 billion in 2018 and projected to reach $282.5 billion by 2023. This financial increase is due to an increase in international trade and globalization. The convenience of the ready-to-eat meals sector dominated the global market in 2018 due to the on-the-go lifestyles of consumers. Globalization has led to brand awareness among developing countries ("Frozen Food Market By Product (fruits & Vegetables, Dairy, Meat & Seafood), Type (raw Material, Half Cooked), Consumption, Distribution Channel, And Region (north America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, And Mea) - Global Forecast To 2023", 2019).

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According to "Interesting Consumer Trends In The European Market Today" (2019), German consumers have an increased interest in foods that are ready to cook and smaller-portion meals. Also, there has been an import increase in the European food market over the past several years. More specifically, Germany is one of the top frozen food consumers ("German Frozen Food Market Grew By 30% In The Last 10 Years", 2019). Some of B&G's frozen foods can be marketed in the German food market. These facts have presented an opportunity for B&G Foods to fill this demand. B&G Foods has a proven track record that shows we have the experience and resources to be successful in this endeavor.

Company Background

The families of Bloch & Guggenheimer and founded the B&G brand in 1889. The two families were immigrants who came to the U.S. to start a better life (B&G Foods, 2019). Their first product were pickles, which they sold in the streets of Manhattan, NY. Over the coming years, the company grew because it placed a lot of effort into the production of a quality product. The company brand formed the heart of B&G Foods when it was founded in 1996 by investors from New York which include Bruckman, Rosser, Sherrill & Co., Len Polaner, Dave Wenner and Bob Cantwell (B&G Foods, 2019). In 2004, the company completes its initial public offering of Enhanced Income Securities and by 2018 the company obtains 22 brands, growing from $129 million to $1.7 billion in net sales (B&G Foods, 2019). Among the many acquisitions, the company owns the brands of Green Giant, Cream of Rice, Cream of Wheat, Grandma's Molasses, Mrs. Dash, Maple Grove Farms, Molly McButter, Ortega and Red Devil to name a few ("Forbes: #53 B&G Foods", 2015).

Mission Statement

B&F Foods ensures there is keen focus on making sure the consumer has great-tasting, high-quality foods that they can feel good about feeding their families (B&G Foods, 2019). The company's growth strategy ensures that the company has the wherewithal to change from one day to the next, constantly improving at all levels. A top priority of the company is constant commitment to food quality and safety.

Vision Statement

Our vision is to expand globally, without sacrificing safety and quality, increasing our customer base, while continuing to provide delicious products that leave the consumer wanting more of what B&G Foods has to offer.

Value Statement

B&G Foods is dedicated to providing quality products and maintaining high ethical standards in its business practices. Our core values encompass food quality, safety, integrity, and accountability. We maintain customer and consumer focus, employee health, collaboration, and empowerment (B&G Foods, 2019).

Environmental Scan

Environmental scanning exposes trends, opportunities, incomplete, unconnected and uncertain data, and threats to the company's bottom line. All of which require detailed analysis (Hitt M., 2015). B&G Foods has lasted in the food industry for such a long period of time because it has invested in environmental scanning. Before the age of the internet and 24-hour news cycles, there was word-of-mouth, public events and newspapers. B&G monitored the successes and failures of other companies in the food industry in order to streamline its strategies with marketing, production, sales and pricing of its products.

The company has done a good job at managing marketing, manpower, cost of production and distribution over the years. The company's products grew from canning meats, fruits and vegetables, distributed in the streets of Manhattan to having distribution in major stores because it seized the opportunities presented when stores such as Target and Walmart began adding grocery sections to their stores. The company has also done the proper research and seized on the opportunities to market its products in the restaurant industry.

Internal/External Analysis

In 2017, after conducting internal and external analysis, B&G Foods decided to renew innovation in an effort to revive some of its withering brands, such as Ortega and Cream of Wheat. In 2016, B&G Foods shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange were down by 7% from the previous close of $46.90 (Watrous, 2017). In 2017, the company restructured internally to place more focus on all brands and groups of brands in the company's portfolio. The company also launched new Pirate's Booty line extensions in the second quarter and it launched a number of new Bear Creek (Watrous, 2017). According to Global Frozen Vegetables Market 2019-2023 With B&G Foods, Conagra Brands, General Mills, Greenyard, & The Kraft Heinz Co Dominating - Researchandmarkets.com (2019), B&G Foods has made the environment more intense by increasing female participation in the workforce and increasing the availability of frozen vegetables during the off-season. This will add important growth opportunities to the manufacturer.

B&G Foods uses many of today's technical sources such as special software to locate events where B&G personnel can visit to stay abreast of marketing trends. News event software uses information-based systems to catalog text and reduce the trade-off between an important missed event and false alarm rates. These types of systems are used to analyze social media channels as sources of information (Hitt M., 2015). The company has used this information which led to producing healthier products that taste great, in-turn, grabbing the attention of a customer base for each product. The company uses mail and email advertisements for current and new products in order to spread product information quickly.

In 2017, there were some internal changes that effected the operational environment of B&G Foods (Valtsev, 2017). Thomas P. Crimmins, the CFO of B&G resigned to pursue other opportunities (Valtsev, 2017). Under Crimmins, the company flourished for many years. The, first quarter report showed an increase of 18.4% but the first quarter of 2016, the decline in the core business raised concerns. According to Valtsev (2017), base business net sales decreased to $8.6M. This was attributable to a decrease in unit volume of $9.8M, partially offset by an increase in pricing of $0.6M and a favorable impact of foreign exchange variations on net sales of an estimated $0.6M. There was more than a $4.7M overall decrease in base business attributable to Green Giant (Valtsev, 2017).

According to "B&G Foods Extends Buyback Plan: Can Efforts Revive The Stock?"(2019), the company is attempting to increase investors' attitudes through strategic growth initiatives and shareholder-friendly business decisions by announcing the extension of a share repurchase program from March 2019 to March 2020, up to $50 million. From Mar 15, 2018 to Mar 15, 2019 the company completed repurchase of 1,397,148 shares for a price of $36.9 million (B&G Foods Extends Buyback Plan: Can Efforts Revive The Stock?, 2019). In 2018, the company provided $125 million in dividends.

According to "Food Industry Market Research Reports, Analysis & Trends"(2019), the food industry has evolved over the last two decades due to technological advances. Food manufacturers are developing specialized product lines to remain competitive and direct growth rather than the traditional approach of diversifying product portfolios. B&G Foods is known for having a huge portfolio but analysis of the external environment shows that the company must take a look at remarketing of some of their current brands. Analysis shows manufacturers are engaging in value packaging, and good value claims on the products ("Food Industry Market Research Reports, Analysis & Trends", 2019). More and more consumers are attracted to convenience and focusing on processed, ready-to-eat, packaged products. ("Food Industry Market Research Reports, Analysis & Trends", 2019).

Strategic Recommendation

There is an opportunity to expand the company's frozen food line into the German market. In Germany, the industry has grown by more than 30% in the last 10 years ("German Frozen Food Market Grew By 30% In The Last 10 Years", 2019). In Germany, there are a number of start-up companies in the frozen food market seeking to exploit the advantages of technology for their product concepts. This is a good opportunity for B&G Foods.

The company has a number of well-known brands that it can use to answer the German consumer demand. In 2018 B&G Foods Green Giant brand partnered with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and featured artwork from two patients on 1 million bags of limited-edition Green Giant Veggie Tots (Refrigerated And Frozen Foods", 2018). B&G Foods can do the same in Germany by partnering with a prominent healthcare facility there in Germany. Utilizing commercial and digital marketing, the packaging will likely attract new consumers. This is also a good market to introduce Green Giants new frozen product, the frozen cauliflower pizza crust which was launched in 2018. The crust is 80% cauliflower which has an excellent carb-to-fat ratio. The product was awarded the Good Housekeeping Nutritionist Approved Emblem (Refrigerated And Frozen Foods", 2018). This fact will likely be appealing to the German consumer. Consumers are very interested in healthy, exotic foods that are ready-to-cook.

There is a frozen food day in Germany; March 6th. President Ronald Reagan even announced this day for the first time in the U.S in 1984. The Frozen Food Day began as a reminder to subsequent generations of the important innovation in the food industry (Refrigerated And Frozen Foods", 2018). This is an excellent opportunity to market the B&G frozen food products. The initial marketing campaign can be built around this day. The company can provide statistics, nutritional data, and quick recipes for B&G products via blogs, social media, radio and printed material (Refrigerated And Frozen Foods", 2018).

Implementation Plan

The plan will be called Project Frozen Foods (PFF). There will be an initial meeting and introduction of team members in the following sections: marketing, IT, training, quality assurance, change management, document management, human resources and project managers. All tasks, roles, responsibilities, policies, processes, procedures, hardware, software/database and timelines will be determined. All sections will have representation at daily status meetings.

Each section will provide status of their tasks and estimated completion dates. When there are issues, the corrective and preventive action (CAPA) manager, in conjunction with change management, will engage all parties involved in a meeting to determine the cause of the issue, determine the corrective action and a determine a means of testing the corrective action to ensure it resolves the issue prior to implementation. The success of the implementation depends upon the ability of marketing to generate interest in the German food market about the frozen food products B&G is looking to launch by the fall of 2020. No-go criteria include issues that will shut down production and manufacturing for an extended period of time. Also, if analytics show little to no interest in B&G products. Upon completion of the implementation, there will be metrics to determine the success of the implementation.

Organizational Change Management Strategies

During daily meetings, tasks will be discussed so all team members are clear on the when, how, and why a change is taking place. All sections affected by a change will have input so the change is done in an effective and efficient manner. Corresponding timelines will be discussed and streamlined. This allows for transparency for all sections that will be affected. Honesty will be encouraged at all times, regardless of how negative the information may be, because sugarcoating the truth could lead to distrust amongst the team. Optimism is a good motivator but it must be done in a way that recognizes potential challenges ("The 10 Best Organizational Change Management Strategies", 2019). Communication will be highly encouraged between all teams. This will allow the teams to identify potential issues before they become larger problems. When a change is necessary, personnel who require training will be notified of related training and when the training must be completed. A manual and/or a digital location where employees can provide ideas for improvement. These suggestions can then be discussed during project team meetings. Once each week there will be a managers-only meeting where strategy will be priority and leadership ideas can be shared ("The 10 Best Organizational Change Management Strategies", 2019).

Risk Management Plan

SWOT Analysis

Strength:

  • Operational Capabilities
  • Revenue Growth
  • Sales and Distribution Network

Weakness:

Dependence on Limited Customers

Opportunities:

  • Positive Outlook for Natural and Organic Foods Market in US
  • Acquisitions
  • Foodservice Industry in US

Threat:

  • Intense Competition
  • Stringent Regulations
  • Labor Costs in US

B&G Foods Inc SWOT Analysis. (2019). B&G Foods, Inc. SWOT Analysis, 1-7.

B&G operates 10 manufacturing facilities which enables the company to effectively handle fluxes in demand and supply. The company sources many of its products from third party companies. This allows B&G to utilize the company-owned manufacturing facilities which is cost-effective. B&G revenue increased from $1,646.4 million in 2017 to $1700.8 million in 2018, with an annual growth of 3.3% (B&G Foods Inc SWOT Analysis, 2019). The company's distribution network merchandises products through supermarkets, mass merchants, warehouse clubs, wholesalers, foodservice distributors and direct accounts, specialty food distributors, military commissaries, dollar store chains and retailers. The company also uses specialized distributors for frozen and shelf-stable products (B&G Foods Inc SWOT Analysis, 2019). These assets put the company in a good position to market its frozen foods in Germany.

Changes in the food market presents a weakness for B&G Foods. The food industry is quickly growing through mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances. This enables large customers to vary their options which could have a serious impact on B&G Foods business and financial situation. There is opportunity for B&G Foods because there is a demand for healthy food which is a demand the company can fill with its frozen foods. This is an opportunity for the company to expand its business opportunity across the US and in the foreign markets. The stable US economy, and the increase in disposable income of US citizens along with increased spending habits are the major drivers of growth (B&G Foods Inc SWOT Analysis, 2019).

A threat to the company is the rise in competition across each of its product lines and from brands of related product categories. Tough and numerous regulations pose a threat to manufacturing. The following is list of a few of the regulatory authoritiess: US Food and Drugs

Administration, the US Department of Agriculture, the Federal Trade Commission, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, the US Department of Labor, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Also, according to "Adopt Water Stewardship Policy (bgs, 2018 Resolution)"(2018), the company is exposed to regulatory and financial risk associated with water availability and pollution from direct operations, agricultural commodities, and other various suppliers (Adopt Water Stewardship Policy (bgs, 2018 Resolution, 2018).

Updated: May 19, 2021
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B&G Foods Company Profile and SWOT Analysis. (2019, Dec 07). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/bg-foods-company-profile-and-swot-analysis-essay

B&G Foods Company Profile and SWOT Analysis essay
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