Case Study 6 Smuckers

Smuckers multiple product lines fit very well together. They produce lines such as natural and organic beverages, fruit spreads, ice cream toppings, natural peanut butters as well as new acquisitions like Folgers, Pillsbury and Hungry Jack. These products are similar in nature to one another because they are the processed foods, and well-known brand. They also can mostly be categorized as breakfast food or beverages.

The company has been contributing to increase shareholder value as stated in their 2008-2010 statement of income. Here it states that their net income in 2010 is dramatically higher than that of 2008 (494,138 compared to 170,379) Smuckers’ net income per share of common stock also increased by 1.14 from 2008 to 2010. This shows that the shareholder’s overall value of stock as increased even with the added expenses of marketing and acquisitions.

There are many subsectors of the processed food industry and Smuckers has been acting on this by acquiring many other companies to help their product line and company grow. Consumers are constantly changing what they are looking for in products so companies must be versatile and agile. The majority of the processed food industry’s leading companies are also highly consolidated and well as expanding into the food service industry globally. The consolidation of these companies allowed them better leverage when competing for favorable shelf space in grocery stores.

I think that Smuckers has positioned itself very well by realizing early on that they had to change to remain a market leader. They had to acquire different products, yet still be able to uphold brands that were the best of the best. Smuckers has also stayed aware of trends, such as, when consumers started becoming calorie conscious they added all natural products to their line up and when the Keurig became a huge consumer sensation, they came out with Folgers and Millstone coffee in K-cups to be compatible.

Looking back to see how Smuckers has...