The world’s largest consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble, saw volumes drop as the downturn began to have an impact on their business in the December quarter, a possible sign of the impact of private label. Procter & Gamble’s heightened prices helped shield them from major revenue declines, however. “As expected, this was a particularly challenging quarter,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer A.G. Lafley. “Despite this, we grew organic sales two per... ...Read more »

A lawsuit regarding Procter & Gamble patents for packaging of their Folgers Coffee brand has been settled amicably with Kraft. P&G filed a lawsuit against Kraft for alleged infringement of packaging patents by Kraft’s Maxwell House. P&G suggest that the packaging of Folgers gives a competitive advantage and claimed the innovation of their containers had helped grow the Folgers brand. “We are delighted by the terms of this settlement and will not hesitate to do what it takes... ...Read more »

Leading global manufacturers Kraft Foods, Nestlé and The Procter & Gamble Company, along with German-based retailer Metro Group, announced today they have extended the use of the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) to synchronize item data in Russia.The supply-chain partners are leveraging the GDSN connections of two world-leading GDSN data-pool providers. Kraft, Nestlé and P&G are members of 1SYNC, the world’s largest data pool; while Metro Group uses SA2 Worldsync as its... ...Read more »

The Procter & Gamble Company has filed a patent lawsuit against Kraft Foods Inc., manufacturer of the Maxwell House Coffee brand. The lawsuit, filed in the United States Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Cincinnati, alleges that the new four-pound plastic container for Maxwell House coffee, now being introduced in America, infringes key Procter & Gamble patents on Folgers Coffee. In 2003, P&G introduced Folgers Coffee in a “consumer-preferred plastic container”.... ...Read more »