Kerry North America regroups under new name
Americas that it says will enhance its customer service by
regrouping previously divided divisions.
The global dairy ingredients giant has changed its business model for the Americas region by re-integrating three of its current divisions - Kerry Ingredients, Kerry BioScience and the Mastertaste flavors - under the new name of Kerry Ingredients & Flavours. According to the firm - which has its headquarters in Tralee, Ireland - the motive behind the regrouping is to better market the services and technologies it offers. "The name change represents the coming together of our expertise to better serve our customers," Jim Egan, Kerry North America's director of communication programs, told FoodNavigator-USA. "Under one Kerry Ingredients & Flavours division we are tapping into experience across those disciplines and combining our applications and development." Only recently acquired and set up, the various divisions will be amalgamated under the same structure. In 2002, the Kerry Group launched Mastertaste as its global flavor division for food and beverage markets, after having previously purchased Mastertaste operations in both the UK and Australia. In 2004, the Group acquired Quest Food Ingredients which it transformed into the Kerry Bio-Science division, specializing in bio-ingredients and pharma-ingredients. According to Egan, the change has allowed the company's American operations to have a more market-focused approach with different technologies and applications now organized according to specific product needs. However, the main push behind the move is to make things easier for clients, said Egan. "I think it's just our continued effort to find ways to serve our customers," he said. As such, Kerry Ingredients & Flavours will now have teams dealing with specific categories including: bakery, cereal and snack bars; prepared meals; dairy and frozen desserts; soups, sauces and dressings; nutritional beverages; salty snacks; tea and coffee; soft drinks, alcholoic beverages; meats, seafood and appetizers. Prior to this, Egan said all three divisions operated as strong businesses, but it was less easy for customers to access the various applications and technologies surrounding their one product than it will be now. "We expect that by working as one organization we can deliver greater value to our customers and that is our goal," said Egan. The name change will affect these three companies located in the USA, Canada and Mexico only. The firm is rolling out the change in the Americas first and notifying its customers of this change as the transitions will apply to systems such as invoicing procedures. "We hope the name will be effective as of July 1," said Egan. Kerry Group reports annualized sales of €4.5bn ($7.1bn) and employs some 22,000 people at its global manufacturing, sales and technical centers. The Group has manufacturing facilities in 19 different countries and international sales offices in another 20 countries.
