Corporate
2011 Annual Review
February 2012
- Document
- SC-2012-002
- Classification
- Public
- Pages
- 48
Abstract
This review covers SucroCorp operations for the year ended December 2011. It is prepared for customers, grower partners, employees and other interested parties. SucroCorp securities are not publicly traded and this document is not a financial disclosure.
Figures presented in this review are internal operating indices. They are not audited, are not stated in currency, and are not comparable to third-party benchmarks.
01Letter from the Chief Executive Officer
Two things happened in 2011 that will matter for a long time. We finished the first phase of the Midwest capacity expansion, and we opened the Consumer Research Center in Lincoln County.
The first of these is easy to explain. We can now supply more of what our customers need, more reliably, across more of the year. The second is harder to explain and, I suspect, more important. For the first time we are able to follow a question about food from the tasting booth to the household and back again, without losing the thread in between.
What we have learned in the first months of operating that facility has already changed how we advise our customers. I expect it to change a good deal more.
02Operations
The Midwest processing capacity expansion added evaporation, ion-exchange and enzymatic conversion capability at three wet-milling facilities. All three now operate on a continuous twelve-month cycle rather than the seasonal pattern that has historically governed regional corn processing.
Approximately 240 operations, maintenance and laboratory positions were added across the three sites. Average order-to-delivery time for regional customers fell by roughly a third.
| Measure | Movement |
|---|---|
| Refined output | +16% |
| Processing efficiency | +11% |
| Order-to-delivery time | -31% |
| Specification conformance | 100% |
03Agricultural supply
The Grower Partnership Initiative opened enrollment to more than 1,900 growing operations across our primary supply counties. Participating growers receive three-year rolling acreage commitments, agronomic consultation and no-cost soil and tissue analysis.
Participants share field-level yield data with our agronomy division. That data supports the coordinated scheduling work that has since produced our effective yield findings.
04Research
The Consumer Research Center opened in September, consolidating sensory evaluation, formulation development and consumer response programs at a single location. The facility houses twenty-four sensory evaluation stations, three pilot formulation kitchens and an instrumented preparation laboratory.
In November the Food Science Division reported findings on preference persistence from a three-year study program. Formulation guidance derived from that work is now offered to customers as part of our technical service program.
05Outlook
For 2012 the company expects to extend distribution reach to additional metropolitan manufacturing regions, to introduce an integrated ingredient platform to manufacturing customers, and to expand the scale of its consumer research programs.
Longer-horizon planning work continues within the company on a thirty-year basis.