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Update on FACT Hello and welcome to Spring! I don’t think I am alone in thanking the powers that be for the return of the warm weather. We’ve got a whole bunch of news for you, because it has been a busy month: we’ve sold some of our commercial real estate, the 2004 financial results are in, we’re ramping up our PR schedule for the consumer website, and interest in our sugar-free donut formulations is on the rise! You may not have known that FACT still owned some commercial real estate, but we recently completed the sale of our second property in Calgary - another important milestone on the drive toward achieving our 2005 growth goals. By divesting these non-core assets we can focus all the more energy and resources on our food operations. Speaking of growth, did you know that our revenue shot up 180% last year? We achieved gross margins of 38%...not bad! To read the whole story, click here. In other news, FACT Foods was recently evaluated by Eric David & Sons, a research firm dedicated to evaluating and incubating micro-cap companies that show growth potential. Steven Weiss, Senior Analyst, comments on FACT’s 2004 year-end financial results: "The year-over-year 180% growth in revenue and the 65% reduction in operating losses provide clear evidence that 2005 should be FACT's breakout year. I believe FACT Corporation will be a rapidly-growing, profitable company -- not only in 2005, but for the next several years as well." To read the whole story, click here. If you aren’t familiar with us, FACT is an innovator and supplier in the functional baked goods arena. Our current product lineup – bread, muffin, cake and various other commercial dough premixes – form the core of FACT’s business. For the complete product listing, click here. We would love to hear from you! If you have any questions, feedback or news of your own that you would like to share, please let us know and we will discuss it in this journal. More at the end of May! Jacqueline Danforth, President Fact Foods |
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The Research Behind the Food
Have you ever wondered how long it takes food makers to come up with their formulations? Have you cracked the secret of how Cadbury got the creamy caramel into the Caramilk® bar? And why do the ingredient lists of seemingly simple things, like cookies, read like a chemistry set? The short answer is that a lot more than you might think goes into developing the foods we eat. There’s taste, texture and food value, but also shelf life, color and appearance. There’s quality assurance. Then there’s packaging. You wouldn’t want to buy a box of taco shells and end up with a pile of crumbs, would you? The amount of research and development put into food all depends on where you start. If you’re just adding to an existing product line, there is less to do. But if it’s a situation where you’re breaking new ground, there’s a lot involved. From market research right through to clinical trials and focus group testing, creating a new class of product can take years. The exact nature of R&D varies. When an existing product is given a ‘facelift’, there is often more effort put into marketing and product packaging than into food science. Consumers are influenced by what they read, and the media will pick up on one aspect or another of the food we eat. Manufacturers play to these trends, coming out with new or ‘improved’ products. In some cases, the only thing that is improved is the packaging. In others, simple ingredient "swap" will change the marketability of a product. For example, in recent years, sugar has been identified as a ‘bad guy’. As a result, many manufacturers removed much of the sugar from their formulations, and replaced it with other simple carbohydrates like corn syrup. The simple carbs from corn syrup are digested into glucose in the stomach, oftentimes producing much more glucose than would have been produced by the original ‘sugar’ recipe. This is one inexpensive route that many manufacturers tend to take in order to improve marketability of their product. While substituting one set of inexpensive ingredients for another will not improve the food value of the product, the cost of ingredients is kept low and new claims can be made on the packaging. Thus, a new version of an existing product is created – one that seemingly caters to the new buzz words the consumer can recognize! As you can imagine, getting the packaging right is important. A visual cue is normally the first connection between consumer and product. There is also product integrity to consider. You have to keep food fresh, keep it from getting crushed, and so on. Packaging is important for maintaining that product integrity and safety from filling at time of production, stacking in boxes or crates and shipping, to the store shelf and into your kitchen. Line extensions, where a successful line of products is added to, don’t normally require a lot of R&D. The R&D effort put into creating a new class of food is something else entirely. It begins with the testing of ingredients that will eventually form the building blocks of a new recipe. Once it is determined that the ingredients with the desired properties will work, they have to be made to work together: the formulation has to be just right. Varying both the product formulations and recipes is essential to optimize product performance and cost. And if you are trying to do something ambitious, like significantly reduce the carbohydrate and sugar content of a dessert, the trick lies in creating an affordable formulation that gives you the desired food value as well as the right taste and mouth feel. Altogether, it can be a real challenge! FACT Foods’ reduced digestible carbohydrate/high fiber baking mixes are a good example of a new class of products. And our products were among the first developed with a low glycemic impact in mind (few digestible simple carbs and little or no sugar). Perfecting the formulations and recipes took several years. Being one of the first is expensive, but also strategically important. It’s always good to be ahead of the pack, as it’s easier to sell new concepts, especially if you’ve guessed right and correctly anticipated consumer trends and interests. |
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Sugar-free Donuts?
Yes, it’s possible! And they’re every bit as good as the sugar-filled donuts you have loved for years. At a glance, FACT donuts have 0 grams of sugar versus the quintessential plain glazed donut which nets out at 6 grams of sugar.Sugar-free is one thing, but the real killer is the digestible carbs found in regular donuts. These simple carbs made from cheap ingredients have a Glycemic Index rating of around 100, causing a spike in blood sugar levels. And then there’s the fat! We’ve substantially trimmed the fat in our donut too. Low sugar, few simple carbs, low fat…you may be wondering if this donut is in fact an ‘air donut’ – nonexistent! Rest assured, with the proper R&D, we’ve created a donut that has performed well in taste trials, and that some of the big chains think could give them an edge in the marketplace. You can make your own donuts at home from our All Purpose Baking Mix. Just add a little extra stevia, honey or your favorite sweetener. We suggest a quick, high temperature fry in canola or soybean oil. |
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Update: EatWellStayWell.net
It’s been a couple of months now since our retail website, Eatwellstaywell.net opened for business. If you haven’t had a look yet, please take the time. Not only is it a convenient way to find the baked goods you love, but it’s a resource as well! Read up on the Glycemic Index, trans fats and other health-related topics.So far, the reaction has been good – people love the website’s look and feel, and orders have been placed and fulfilled without a glitch. The test phase is over – now is the season to ramp up the action and drive people to the site. This Spring’s plans include the sponsorship of several events where we will hit our demographic: women who watch what they eat but like to eat well all the same. We’re also going into high gear with our PR – the best way to get people’s attention is to have more editorial on the subject! |
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