This year will see substantial growth in the Danish food industry, driven by new product launches and expansion into new markets. This is the conclusion of a study carried out for the Danish newspaper Børsen.
The study, carried out by Greens Analyse Institut and focusing on food industry members of the Confederation of Danish Industries, suggests that three out of five companies in the Danish food industry will see substantial growth in 2003, of between 6-10 per cent, and that more than a quarter of the companies will increase both their share capital and their workforce during the year as a result of the boom.
The majority of this growth will be driven by new product launches, the survey suggests, with almost 60 per cent of the food producing companies questioned saying they had new introductions planned for 2003. Some 45 per cent said they would push their business into new markets during the year, while 35 per cent said they were planning mergers, acquisitions or alliances for 2003.
The survey also shows that the food industry is expected to be the main driver of growth in the Danish economy as a whole in 2003. The study shows that while most of Denmark's leading 2,000 companies expect to see net reductions in staff levels for the year, food industry companies are already concerned that there will not be enough skilled workers to meet their growth expectations.
The paper said that the figures certainly suggested that the Danish food industry was outperforming much of the rest of the country's industrial sectors, with export sales in particular driving growth, perhaps as a result of the high quality image of Danish (not to say Scandinavian) food products as a whole in a climate of increasing concern about the safety of many food products. Whatever the reason, Danish food exports showed solid growth in 2002, growing by $2 billion to more than $11 billion, the paper said.