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March 16, 2005

Kemps to move company headquarters ... Cuba orders Louisiana dairy products ... HP Hood rolls out ice cream line to honor Boston Red Sox ... Dairy People News ... Albertson financials ... Colorado union negotiators reject Albertsons offer ... Ralphs president honored ... Plant Operations Conference ... Odds-and-Ends ... Stock Market Ticker ... More news at www.idfa.org.

DAIRY BUSINESS BRIEFS

Kemps plans to move its corporate headquarters from Minneapolis to St. Paul, Minn. The move will unite under one roof the 110 corporate employees who are currently working in two offices in Minneapolis; more than 200 plant and distribution workers will remain at the company's facilities in Minneapolis. To facilitate the move of its administrative staff, Kemps is expected to seek a grant of up to $200,000 through the St. Paul Strategic Investment Fund, which is aimed at luring companies to the city. (Associated Press)

A Cuban order for 116,000 tons of dairy products from AnPro Trading LLC in Metairie, La., was among the first deals to be signed under a new pledge by Cuba's largest buying agency, state-run Alimport, to purchase $15 million worth of agricultural products from Louisiana businesses through the end of 2006. Both the pledge and initial deals were made last week during a trade mission to Cuba by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. However, the deals could be thwarted by a new U.S. policy that requires Cuba to pay for such products prior to shipping; the previous policy allowed U.S. food and humanitarian exports to be paid for before the goods were unloaded in Cuba. (The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.)

New England's HP Hood is rolling out Hood Champions Ice Cream, tagged as the first and only official ice cream of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. The four-flavor line, packaged in 56-ounce containers, includes: Green Monster Mint -- chocolate mint 'sock' inclusions with fudge in mint ice cream; Fenway Fudge -- chocolate and fudge socks swirled with fudge in chocolate ice cream; Comeback Caramel -- chocolate-caramel socks and caramel swirled in caramel ice cream; and in a salute to the fan base known as the "Red Sox Nation", Peanut Butter Nation -- chocolate-peanut butter socks with fudge in a vanilla ice cream base. (Company report)

DAIRY PEOPLE NEWS

Steve Demos, president of the Boulder, Colo.-based WhiteWave Foods division of Dean Foods Co., has resigned to pursue other interests. Dean Foods Chairman and CEO Gregg Engles will assume direct leadership of WhiteWave on an interim basis. Dean Foods has retained James Mead & Company, a consumer packaged goods executive recruiting firm, to assist in the search for a new division president. WhiteWave was founded by Demos in 1977 and acquired by Dallas-based Dean Foods in 2002. The division currently processes soy milk, organic milk and other foods with $1.2 billion in annual revenue under its Silk, Horizon Organic, International Delight and Land O'Lakes brands. (Associated Press, company report)

Mike Crone is the new vice president of retail sales for LeMars, Iowa-based Wells' Dairy Inc. Before joining Wells', he spent 13 years in various sales positions with Haagen-Dazs, including vice president of distribution strategy and acquisitions, and vice president of sales and distribution. His background also includes 16 years with Frito-Lay. (Company report)

Enrico Bondi is now the CEO of Milan, Italy-based Parmalat SpA, the company which is to take on the restructured operations of Parmalat Finanziaria SpA. Bondi was the government-appointed administrator for the company's restructuring and plans to re-list the company's stock after creditors have exchanged their debts for new shares in Parmalat SpA. (AFX International Focus)

CUSTOMER CLIPS

Net income of Boise-based Albertsons Inc. fell 20% to $444 million ($1.19 per share) for its fiscal year ending Feb. 3, from $556 million ($1.51 per share). Sales at the supermarket chain rose 13.6% to $39.9 billion with purchases of Shaw's in the Northeast and Bristol Farms in Los Angeles. Albertsons reports that its earnings were hurt by Florida hurricanes, sluggish business in Southern California and Texas, and changes in lease accounting. The company plans to expand a cost-cutting program in order to save $250 million by the end of its 2006 fiscal year. (Associated Press)

In other news, a contract offer from Albertsons Inc. was rejected by United Food and Commercial Workers negotiators in Colorado on Friday. UFCW spokesman called the Albertson's offer "much worse" than deals offered by Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. to Colorado supermarket workers. Employees of Kroger-owned King Soopers and City Market chains accepted a contract offer that includes a two-tier wage system that will pay new hires at a lower rate than current workers and raises employees' health-care costs. Safeway workers are voting by mail on a similar offer. Albertsons has about 2,000 union workers in Colorado; the current offer covers those who work at Front Range stores. (Associated Press)

Dave Hirz, president of Ralphs Grocery Co., was inducted to the California Grocers Association Educational Foundation Hall of Achievement. Hirz got his start in the supermarket industry as a dairy clerk; in 2004 he became president of Ralphs, a division of Kroger Co. (progressivegrocer.com)

IDFA NEWS

Register Now for April's Plant Operations Conference
Innovation, technology and management are the three watchwords for IDFA's Plant Operations Conference, set for April 26-27 at the Wyndham Chicago in Chicago, Ill. This year's program will cover the latest technology developments in filtration, production, and product packaging and tracking. In addition, program participants will receive briefings on such important management issues as worker safety, diversity in the workplace, and the new federal regulations on recordkeeping. "The Plant Operations Conference successfully delivers its ambitious agenda, which looks at the innovative technologies that can help a dairy plant operate more efficiently, as well as how to manage a facility's invaluable human capital," said Courtney Waters, IDFA senior manager of educational services. For a complete agenda or to register, click here.

ODDS-AND-ENDS

Groupe Lactalis of France will begin to promote its President brand cheeses in Japan next month with the help of trading firm Itochu Corp. (Asia Pulse) ... Seattle-based Jones Soda Co. will team with The Kroger Co. in a licensing agreement to manufacture and sell Jones Frozen Soda Pops, which is a new frozen novelties line based on popular Jones Soda flavors. The deal gives Kroger a three-year exclusive manufacturing agreement and a one-year exclusive distribution agreement. The initial flavor rollout will include Green Apple, Berry Lemonade and Cherry, which will be sold in a variety 12-pack of 1.75 fl. oz. frozen novelties. (Jones Soda report) ... Faith-based and community organizations for needy recipients will be eligible for donations of nonfat dry milk and related products through Sept. 30, 2005, under the National Nonprofit Humanitarian Initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Each month, the initiative will provide up to 3.2 million pounds of instantized nonfat dry milk that is fortified with vitamins A and D and up to 2 million pounds of non-fortified nonfat dry milk that will be exchanged for dairy products prior to distribution. The products may include puddings, soups, UHT shelf-stable milk and energy bars. USDA will provide sign-up information on March 18. (USDA)

STOCK MARKET TICKER

As of 3/15/05, market close.

Company/Symbol		Last Trade		Change over Previous Close		Change over Last Week's D-brief
Dean Foods/DF Dreyer's/DRYR General Mills/GIS Groupe Danone/DA Hershey Foods/HSY Ingles Markets/IMKTE Kraft Foods/KFT Kroger/KR Ruddick Corp./RDK Safeway/SWY Saputo/SAP.TO Supervalu/SVU Unilever PLC/UL Weis Markets/WMK Wimm Bill Dann/WBD Winn-Dixie/WIN*		34.30 80.67 52.41 20.00 62.19 13.05 32.93 15.62 23.00 18.27 37.05 33.03 38.96 36.61 17.61 N/A		-1.00 -0.07 +0.53 -0.17 -0.18 +0.00 -0.26 -0.40 -0.40 -0.30 +0.26 -0.15 -0.09 -0.49 -0.04 N/A		-0.63 -0.08 +0.71 -0.25 -1.54 +0.00 -0.37 -1.23 -0.10 -0.08 +0.84 +0.02 -0.09 -0.55 +0.61 N/A
*The New York Stock Exchange suspended trade of WIN as a result of the company's filing of its Chapter 11 petition on February 21, 2005. Source: Yahoo! Finance

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