Fletcher’s Fine Foods is changing its name to Premium Brands Inc.
George Paleologou, vice-president and chief financial officer, said the new name reflects the changing nature of the company as one that has a stable of brand products.
“Over the past five years we have evolved from a company selling a product under one brand name … to a company with 14 plants with many, many great brands,” he said.
“We are not going to sell product under the Premium Brands name. That’s just the generic name of the holding company, really, that owns or operates a number of independent subsidiaries.”
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The company, which has plants in the four western provinces and two American states, will continue to sell under brand names such as Fletcher’s, Grimm’s and Harvest Meats.
He said having a generic name for the overall company allows each brand to build its reputation on its own.
It is like ConAgra, he said.
“ConAgra is not a brand. It owns a number of great brands like Healthy Choice, Hunts and a whole bunch of other brands, but you wouldn’t know that. ConAgra is a generic name. Phillip Morris is another example. It really isn’t a brand name but they own Marlboro cigarettes and they own Kraft, Miller’s beer. It is the brand that the consumer identifies with and that’s what they buy.”
The company will continue for now to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the abbreviation FFF.
The company also announced that Richard Klassen, executive vice-president of the food and industrial group of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, has been appointed the new chair of the board of Premium Brands. The pool is a major shareholder in Premium Brands.
