Fast Track Engineering

Fast Track Engineering, a new Australian company, was 1. (created / made / built)to provide the confectionery industry with new ideas and opportunities in the manufacure of soft-boiled candies. The company aims at improving day-to-day operations while

creating a superior product 2. (in connection with / in regards to / regardless)quality, taste and texture.

Fast Track Engineering's main expertise 3. (goes / results / comes)from the knowledge – gathered over decades – of how to design and manufacture high quality confectionery machines while working with the purchaser to ensure ultimate satisfaction. That

relationship continues, as FastTrack 4. (provides / gives / offers)the purchaser with the afterservice support required to guarantee a long-lasting investment.

The company's broad range of mogul equipment 5. (takes / includes / engages)auxiliary equipment such as sugar sanders, oiling machines and finishing conveyor systems. It also includes all key equipment to provide customers with a complete 6. (turnkey / clear / full)system, such as starch drying/cooling system, dust collectors with a built-in starch balancing hopper 7. (also / as well as / both)free-standing dust collectors with a rotary valve and screw conveyor system. Fast Track Engineering also offers a customdesigned,

fully intergraded pallet transport and product drying system, which no other organization 8. (does / builds / creates)worldwide.

Given the company's 9. (internal / professional / in-house)skills, Fast Track Engineering can support existing mogul users in daily operations. This expertise extends beyond design and manufacturing 10. (techniques / ways / technology), encompasses technical, operational and mechanical service advice. Please note that the company can also recondition existing pumps.

Because Fast Track Engineering is a very competitive organization, it invites customers to test its expertise and equipment against others.

Task 15 Read the article on making candy and answer the following questions.

1.What was the old way of candymaking?

2.What is Abdallah Candies famous for?

3.What was the company approach to candymaking in the past?

4.How does the company update its practice?

5.What kind of customers does the company cater to?

6.What products are the most popular with their customers?

7.What is the traditional method for making caramel-base products?

8.What do single-serve products include?

9.Which is the fastest-growing market segment today?

10.What do customers think about sugar-free products?

While many candy companies fervently search for the latest and greatest to try to outwit competitors, there are a few that remain successful by staying with the old tried-and-true methods of candymaking. By concentrating on satisfying their current customers, new ones appear.

Burnsville, Minn.-based Abdallah Candies, a fourth-generation family-owned company known for its caramel, toffee and chocolate candies, still makes candy in small batches. Moreover, it still operates several pieces of equipment that go back more than

three generations. Although the company has started to expand and update its practices, one foot remains firmly planted in the past.

"You're usually either production-oriented or sales-oriented and up until not that long ago, we were always very productionoriented", says company president Steven Hegedus Jr., whose great-grandfather started the company in 1909. "Coming up to this

point it's pivoted a little after hiring a national sales manager, but it's always been just produce what we can and make sure we take care o[ our existing customers. Expansion wasn't really our primary goal. Our goal was to satisfy the customers we had". Along those

lines, Abdallah's wholesale business (which comprises the bulk of the company's sales) still caters to the small customer. The company only requires a $100 minimum for first-time customers, with no minimum for reorders. Most of their 6,500 wholesale

customers consist of upscale grocery stores, hospital gift shops, university bookstores, card shops and other general gift stores. "You don't have to buy a large quantity to buy from Abdallah and that's one of the reasons why we have so many customers", says Steven.

"We have a lot of small customers. In any day we could gain a dozen, and three or four can go out of business". The company also does private-label manufacturing, with about 25 % of its production focusing on this area.

According to Steven, any of their caramel-based products, from the 14 different varieties of wrapped caramels to their Cashew Grizzlies (a Turtle-like combination of cashews, caramel and chocolate) are the most popular with their customers. Although some of

the wrapped caramel flavors are slightly unusual, including licorice and chocolate mint, the company sticks to traditional methods for making them. Corn syrup, sugar, sweetened condensed milk and cream are mixed together and cooked in a Savage Bros. copper kettle

for 45 minutes before being poured out onto a water-cooled table. After cooling, employees cut the caramel into long strips and feed them into an APV wrapping machine that individually wraps each piece of caramel at a rate of 450 pieces a minute.

Also popular with customers are the company's single-serve products, which include individually wrapped cashew, peanut and pecan Grizzlies, butter almond toffee, Birch Bark (white coating and almonds) and Alligators (Abdallah's version of a Turtle) among

several others. "That's our fastest-growing segment of the market: the pickup, single-serving candy", says Steven, who also mentions that their sugar-free products, available in single-serving and larger gift packages, are popular as well.

"I know a lot of people make sugar-free, but I don't think there are too many people who make good sugar-free. With sugar-free, people are kind of expecting it not to be good, so they don't really think that it can be".

Task 16 Read the article below and write one word to fill the gap.

Although no one knows for sure what 1._____ the very first candy products produced by Abdallah Candies way back in 1909, records clearly identify the founders 2._____ Lebanese immigrant Albert Abdallah and his American wife, Helen Trovall. Albert had

previously owned a small fruit store and soda fountain 3._____ Minneapolis, Minn., which was where he met his future wife.

Married in 1909, Albert sold his current business 4._____ that he and Helen could take a six-month honeymoon in his native Syria. Upon their return, the pair opened the first Abdallah Candies location, called Abdallah's Candy and Ice Cream Shop 5._____ the

time, on Hennepin and Lake in Minneapolis.

"My grandmother did flowers and they 6._____ first buying the candy, but then my grandfather started making the candy", says Steven's mother Vicke Hegedus, Albert and Marie's granddaughter. ''7._____ those days someone would come around and sell you a

recipe. So my grandfather would buy a recipe, but as anyone in the candymaking business knows, there's more 8._____ just the recipe involved. He got to the point where he wouldn't buy a recipe 9._____ that person would make a batch with him so he would

know how to make it. And that's how he got his recipes". Albert started 10._____ these recipes and developed them into his own, later helped by his son-in-law, Glenn Oletzke. 11._____ one time the business included a restaurant that could seat 200 with an

attached candy shop. Glenn first started working at the Abdallah restaurant and candy shop while attending business school and it was 12._____ his time serving customers that he met Albert's daughter, Marie. The two married 13._____ 1935 and Glenn eventually

served as company president for many years. Vicke remembers helping with the business from early on 14._____ her childhood.

Task 17 Choose the best phrase from the given below to fill each of the gaps:

A.We used to come as a family;

B.After surviving bankruptcy;

C.We used to make ice cream;

D.My dad's chief candy maker;

E.During his time running the company.

1."_____ and I was supposed to get some of my friends after Bible school in the spring and we would have to pick the tops off of strawberries. Those strawberries were used in the ice cream and toppings", she says. "Then when I was older we used to hand-foil

some candies so I got to do those and in high school I worked some in the shop. It's always been a part of my life; it's always been there because my parents worked so many hours in the business." The family business's presence continued into her adult life; just 10

months after marrying her husband, Stephen (Steve) Hegedus Sr., Steve went to work for Abdallah Candies as well.

2."_____ got called up for the Bay of Pigs. He needed a candymaker so he asked if [Steve] wanted to come work for him and he did", says Vicke. Although Steve had no previous candymaking experience, he was eager to learn the trade from his father-in-law.

"I had a really good teacher. He was a disciplinarian, very stern, but I didn't mind learning", says Steve (Sr.), who currently serves as CEO.

3._____ in 1935 due to the Depression and a devastating fire in 1965, the third generation started running the company in 1973 when Glenn and Marie retired. Steve Sr. became president and with that position took on responsibilities that often kept him up at

night. "I would wake up at night and I'd have pressure thinking if the prices were right. My father-in-law was always telling me, 'You gotta have the right prices.' And I had 14 people here who were counting on their jobs. You wake up and all of a sudden you think,

'that’s your responsibility now'', Steve (Sr.) remembers.

4._____, Steve (Sr.) stayed fairly conservative, making sure to take care of Abdallah's current customers, but not necessarily eager to take on new ones. "I was very content being where I was. We always grew 5 % to 10 % every year and that was fine", he says. "We were very conservative in those days to not step over our boundaries of what we could produce". Once her children were in school, Vicke also became more involved with the business, taking over the company's only retail store, located right outside the factory.

5._____ Dad, Mom, me and my sister would come on Sundays and we'd be sitting on the packing belt-just the four of us-filling

orders because you'd have the shelves behind you that were empty", says Steven (Jr.).

"I used to come to fold boxes in the corner. I think Dad used to forget about me because I would just have hundreds of boxes around me".

Task 18 Read the article and decide whether the statements are true or false.

1.The company brand makes customers familiar with the company product.

2.The national sales manager had experience in candy making.

3.Steven (Jr.) didn’t want to expand their presence in the gift industry.

4.The new boxes feature various muted colors with the new Abdallah logo and a bow on the upper right corner.

5.It took three years to develop a simple box with a logo and a bow.

6.The recipe for the company's caramels didn’t change to increase shelf life and productivity.

7.To accommodate the large number of caramel apples the company makes during the fall, the company developed continuous caramel cooker.

8.The Yorkshire Process Plant continuous caramel cooker that currently makes caramel dip may be used for all of the company's caramels.

"My goal is to build the Abdallah brand, to do solid brand building so people are familiar with Abdallah in our new areas that we're into, outside of the Minneapolis area. That's what's gotten us here today", says Steven (Jr.). Part of realizing this goal involved

hiring a national sales manager, Madonna Schmitz. She joined two and a half years ago to help expand the line through outside sales people. Interestingly, Schmitz had experience in the gift industry rather than in candy, which Steven (Jr.) saw as a strength. "When

she came on board, she said, 'What's a wrapped caramel?' and 'What's a Cashew Grizzly?' She started from the very bottom. She was [then] able to spell out this program and dissect it [to other people] ", he explains. "So when we would have sales people sell it, it

would be easy for them to understand and pickup and sell".

Steven (Jr.) also changed the packaging the company used, which had been the same for decades, in order to expand their presence in the gift industry. "We've just redone our packaging so it's more of a gift box. Before it was just a brown box with a clear

lid, so you could see the candy, but there really was no packaging to speak of” he says. The new boxes feature various muted colors with the new Abdallah logo and a bow on the upper left corner. Despite the relative simplicity of the design, it took a long time to

finalize. "It took a couple years to develop a simple box with a logo and a bow. You sit there and you examine every little thing. We probably spent a whole day discussing whether that rose pictured above the Abdallah name on the logo should be over here a little bit

more or over here. But we knew whatever we stuck with was going to be our brand", says Steven (Jr.).

Some of the processes used to make the candy have also changed, with some changes occurring under Steve (Sr.), some under

Steven (Jr.) and some to come in the future. During Steve's (Sr.) time as president, the recipe for the company's caramels changed to increase shelf life and productivity. To accommodate the large number of caramel apples the company makes during the fall, the

company developed its own caramel apple-dipping machine, which produces 4,000 apples an hour. The machine dramatically cut down on the amount of space and the number of employees needed with the old hand dipping method. In the future, Steven (Jr.) hopes

to be able to use the Yorkshire Process Plant continuous caramel cooker, which currently makes caramel dip, for all of the company's caramels. The switchover would boost output versus making caramel in copper kettles. Theyare currently working on tweaking the

recipe for their wrapped caramels to allow them to do this.

Task 19 Read the article below and choose the best word to fill each gap.

Despite his conservative business approach as company president, Steve (Sr.) knew that changes were (made / bound / chosen)

to happen with future generations. In order to help their son (achieve / gain / reach)what he wanted with the company, Steve (Sr.) and Vicke bought a new piece of property in Burnsville in 1987 and eventually built a bigger facility, which they (came / went /

moved )into in 1997. "We bought the property thinking that someday we might need it. But we were at the (moment / point / time)where we were thinking, "we don't want to get bigger", Vicke remembers. "Yet Steven, who was coming up in the business, had no

room to grow. Steve and I talked and thought, we had our (chance / time / moment )to do our thing, and if we build the building,

Steven will have his chance to do his thing. So without the bigger building the growth wouldn't have been here, it would have been (stable / firm / stagnant )".

The move more than doubled the company's space – 15,000 sq. ft. to 32,00l} sq. ft. Although adequate at first, Abdallah Candies was (given / caused / forced )to expand again seven years later, thus in Dec. 2004 they built an addition, boosting the facility's size to

60,000 sq. ft. With the expansion the family hoped to (include / be / get )a tour area so customers could walk through the building and watch the candies being made, but due to space constraints they settled on a (watching / looking / viewing)area. Customers can

now watch employees hand-dip certain varieties of truffles and make Heavenly Hash (a combination of chocolate, marshmallows and walnuts), among other handmade products, through a (window / door / slot )in the retail store. The extra space this arrangement gives

allows the family to plan on staying at their current location long into the future.

"We're at capacity as far as the building is (concerned / taken / made)but we're far from capacity in production. We have a long way to go before outgrow this building," says Steve (Jr.). Given the constant balancing act of expansion while (preserving /

keeping / reserving)tradition and quality, Steve (Jr.) echoes the feelings about pressure that his father felt over 30 years ago. "I feel it is a lot more responsibility", he says. "We have over 100 employees, and I feel a great deal of (duty / responsibility / commitment )

toward them and their livelihoods. The family legacy is important to hold up, too, as well as the quality". With a little luck, Steve

(Jr.)'s heirs will also bear that responsibility in the future.

Task 20 Define which paragraph (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) each statement (A, B, C, D, E) refers to.

A.Wrigley has definitely prepared to protect its share of the market.

B.The January 2006 rollout also includes four new sorts of gums.

C.Wrigley is feeling lack of space.

D.Wrigley's commitment to product development came with investment and innovation activities.

E.The new brands resulted in about two- thirds of the volume gain for the quarter and about a third of the volume gain year-todate.

1.Just five months after finalizing their acquisition of confectionery brands from Kraft Foods, Chicago-based Wm. Wrigley Jr.

Co. continues to expand and grow, preparing to release eight new products in January 2006.The new products, which include Douhlemint mints, Cool Watermelon Extra and Cinnamon Inferno and Midnight Cool Eclipse, follow a previous major rollout of

seven new items in June, which was then the biggest expansion over any comparable period in the company's 114-year history. The January 2006 rollout also includes extensions of former Kraft brands, with new Wintermint Orbit White, Mango Sour Altoid mints,

tropical Creme Savers and Berry Sours Lifesaver Gummies to be introduced.

2.This announcement marks a significant shift in business strategies for Wrigley over the past several years. New products now constitute 20 % of sales, up from 5 % in 1999 when Bill Wrigley first became chief executive of the company. "It has definitely been a

step up with investment and innovation activities", says senior director of corporate communications Christopher Perille. "Everything really begins and ends with consumers, though. As long as we see continued opportunities with the brands, we'll continue developing

new products." Further evidence of Wrigley's commitment to product development came with the opening of the $45 million Global Innovation Center last month, where Wrigley scientists and food technicians will work on new products and conduct focus groups.

3. Wrigley also recently announced results for the three-month and nine-month periods ending on Sept. 30, 2005. Sales are up 16 % for the quarter and 14 % in the nine-month period, with worldwide volume gains of 20 % and 14 %, respectively. The new

brands account for about two- thirds of the volume gain for the quarter and about a third of the volume gain year-to-date. "In the third quarter we were really running the new brands as is," says Perille. "About 30 days after the acquisition was finalized we had a

meeting to bring together the team and introduce them to the brands and the opportunities associated with them. Then we had the national sales meeting in September and that's where we laid out the January releases."

4.With all the recent changes and expansions, Wrigley is beginning to run out of room in their current offices. The company signed a lease early this month for about 100,000 sq. ft. of space at 600 W. Chicago Ave. in Chicago, the former headquarters for

Montgomery Ward & Co. Although the number of employees who will be moved to the new offices has not yet been determined, the space should be ready early next year, according to PeriIle.

5.With gum being the fastest growing confectionery category, Wrigley is facing some steep competition from its rival Cadbury Schweppes. The UK-based conglomerate bought Adams gum from pharmaceutical group Pfizer two years ago and is making inroads

in some of Wrigley's biggest markets, including the U.S. and Canada. Wrigley still commands 35.4 % of the gum industry, though, compared to 26 % for Cadbury, according to Euromonitor. With its new product releases, new brands and new facilities, Wrigley has

definitely geared up to defend its share of the market.

Task 21 Look at the statements below and at the reviews of a few businesses. Which review (A, B, C, D, E, F) does each statement 1 – 9 refer to? You will need to use some of these letters more than once.

1.Internet is used to coordinate the company performance.

2.The product line is of great variety in this company.

3.This product just melts on the tongue.

4.A new sweetener like sugar may appear in the near future.

5.Environmentalists are concerned with lack of light.

6.This company expands its chain of stores.

7.This product contributes to improving people’s health.

8.This company shows the cocoa content on its product packages.

9.People are against air polluting in their neighborhood.