Innovative thinking | Manufacturers look for ways to be more environmentally friendly, nutritious or satisfy niche markets
Ripped jeans, a nose ring and a bad attitude were once popular strategies for teenagers looking to stand out from the crowd.
However, it turns out that pursuing uniqueness has value beyond high school doors.
It’s also essential for success in the food-processing sector, a new report has concluded.
The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute released a report in early April that identified key traits of successful food companies.
CAPI contracted university professors in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia to analyze the business model and strategies of 13 Canadian food processors.
Read Also
Farming Smarter receives financial boost from Alberta government for potato research
Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
The analysts evaluated large publicly traded companies such as Maple Leaf Foods and smaller privately held businesses, such as InfraReady of Saskatoon, which supplies ingredients, mostly grain, to food manufacturers.
CAPI president David McInnes said product differentiation has been a cornerstone of business strategies for many years.
The report highlighted the value of incorporating uniqueness and differentiation into every facet of a company.
“What struck us when we examined these case studies is these firms are innovating at a broad variety of activities,” McInnes said.
He said the report looked at a limited number of companies, which means some successful food manufacturers were not mentioned.
Business innovation is often de-fined as developing a novel product and creative management strategies or determining how to improve a manufacturing line.
McInnes said that’s true, but successful food processors take it a step further.
“It was that multiplicity of differentiation, at so many levels, for us that seemed like the essence of innovation,” McInnes said.
“How to create something unique, better or more efficient, at every single level in which the company operates… going right back to the relationship with growers.”
In the case of InfraReady, its differentiation is spelled out on the company’s website.
It promises to “provide measurably superior quality, innovative and nutritious food ingredients that have recognizable consumer benefit” and offer those products in an open and transparent manner.
President Mark Pickard said his company produces more than 250 ingredients, including cereal and pulse flour, soup mixes, processed beans and lentils, flaked cereal grain and whole grain baking products.
The company processes grain with infrared technology that gelatinizes the starches found in grain and pulses.
The process reduces cooking times, increases water absorption, enhances shelf life and produces a softer grain texture compared to raw, un-processed grain.
InfraReady supplies ingredients to Nestle, Dare and Gerber, as well as to smaller manufacturers that focus on high-value niche markets.
McInnes said the commitment to differentiation must go beyond a tagline in a television commercial.
“(There should be) a depth and breadth to the processes and the mechanics and management and the culture, to deliver on it,” he said.
“There’s a difference between an advertising slogan or logo, versus a deep seated commitment to deliver on what the customer wants. It’s that depth that requires innovative thinking, essentially differentiation, right back to the soil.”
McInnes said more food processors are defining their uniqueness by what happens on the farm.
Bonduelle North America, a processor of canned and frozen vegetable, such as the Arctic Gardens brand, has three plants in Ontario and four in Quebec.
The company encourages its growers to adhere to “socially responsible agriculture,” such as reducing pesticide use and the planting of cover crops like vetch and clover to enrich the soil. The agronomic expectations are a key part of the company’s mission to deliver healthier vegetables to consumers.
These kinds of corporate expectations could alter the relationship between agricultural suppliers and buyers because consumers increasingly want to know how food is grown, the CAPI report noted.
“Producers’ and processors’ economic prospects are becoming more closely tied than just a supply relationship,” it said.
“Sharing information and managing consumer expectations is in-creasingly important to ensure that the desirable attributes and quality of those ingredients … meets the evolving needs of the marketplace.”
