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March 23, 2005

Foremost Farms nearly quadruples profits...General Mills' income falls...Wimm Bill Dann up 8.5 percent...Deja Moo re-opens business...Vietnam to lift dairy import quotas...Dairy Marketing Mix...Kroger Co. to launch consumer publication...Five retailers to take 50 percent of grocery sales...Penn Traffic CFO departs...Odds-and-Ends...Stock Market Ticker...More news at www.idfa.org.

DAIRY BUSINESS BRIEFS

Dairy cooperative Foremost Farms USA, Baraboo, Wis., nearly quadrupled its profits in 2004 with the help of high dairy prices and cost-cutting measures including plant closures and production consolidation. Net earnings for the cheese and dairy processor increased 272 percent to a record $28.3 million in 2004 vs. $7.6 million in 2003. Sales increased 17 percent to $1.4 billion for the year vs. $1.2 billion in 2003. (Company report, The Wisconsin State Journal)

General Mills Inc.'s net income fell 5 percent to $230 million (58 cents per share) for the third quarter ending Feb. 27 vs. $242 million (60 cents per share) in the previous third quarter. The Minneapolis-based parent company of Yoplait-Colombo noted that the earnings loss was due to taxes from the sale of a European snack business as well as accounting changes. Sales grew 3 percent in the quarter to $2.77 billion vs. $2.70 billion last year. Yoplait yogurt was the strongest contributor to the company's domestic retail unit volume growth with an 18 percent overall increase led by its Yoplait Light and Go-gurt products. (Associated Press)

Russian dairy concern Wimm Bill Dann Foods increased net profits 8.5 percent to $23 million in 2004 vs $21.2 million in 2003. Sales for 2004 jumped 26.7 percent to $1.19 billion vs. $938.5 million in 2003. The company increased sales of its dairy products by 33.8 percent to $886 million in 2004 vs. $662.3 million in 2003; sales of juice products grew 8.8 percent from $274.5 million in 2003 to $298.7 million in 2004. (Ria Oreanda/Economic News)

Deja Moo, a Bismark, N.D., dairy processor that closed its doors two years ago, is once again producing milk. Deja Moo milk is currently being produced and shipped to Minnesota distributor Bon Appetit Management for college and corporate foodservice customers, and the dairy is working with North Dakota retailers to resume supermarket sales. Currently running at about 10 percent capacity, the processor will begin to produce ice cream and frozen yogurt in about 60 days. During the company's hiatus, the Deja Moo brand was licensed by an unnamed company in Davenport, Iowa, and was marketed on a limited basis in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. (Associated Press)

Vietnam will remove import quotas on dairy, maize and cotton products as of April 1 to further the country's efforts to join the World Trade Organization. The quotas were imposed in 2003. (Thai Press Reports)

DAIRY MARKETING MIX

The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board is promoting the state's cheeses with an on-package/online instant win game now through June 2 called "Win in a Flash." The game offers entrants $1.6 million in prizes including 20 cash prizes of $50,000 each, cheese cutting boards, recipe boxes and pizza cutters. To play, consumers enter the UPC code from a Wisconsin cheese package or a code from an FSI coupon (to be distributed April 3) on www.WisDairy.com. (WMMB report)

The Lactaid brand will partner with the National Dairy Council's 3-A-Day of Dairy campaign to help the lactose-intolerant meet the 2005 Dietary Guidelines recommendation of three daily lowfat and fat-free dairy servings. The guidelines note that milk and milk products are a key source of nutrients, and suggest that the lactose intolerant choose alternative dairy products such as yogurt or lactose-free milk, or consume the enzyme lactase prior to consuming other dairy products. Fort Washington, Pa.-based McNeil Nutritionals LLC, a Johnson & Johnson company, markets Lactaid products, including Lactaid milk processed and distributed by HP Hood LLC, as well as Lactaid supplements containing the lactase enzyme. The brand will be part of 3-A-Day of Dairy retail promotions, in-store sampling and web site communications throughout 2005. (McNeil Nutritionals report)

CUSTOMER CLIPS

The Kroger Co. plans to launch a new monthly publication to educate shoppers about natural products, organics and nutritional supplements. Optimum Wellness will be distributed starting July 1 in more than 300 Kroger-owned stores in Southern California, Washington, northern Oregon and Denver. The magazine will be produced by Los Angeles-based Active Interest Media Inc. (progressivegrocer.com)

Five companies are expected to sell half of all U.S. supermarket groceries in the near future. The companies are: Wal-Mart Stores, Kroger Co., Albertsons, Safeway and Ahold USA. The 50-percent mark doubles the share of the top five food retailers in 1997. (The Kiplinger Agriculture Letter)

The Penn Traffic Co. announced the resignation of Robert B. Dimond, executive vice president/chief financial officer, for personal reasons. He was hired Jan. 4, and previously held key financial positions with the Kroger Co. and Nash Finch. Randy P. Martin, Penn Traffic's chief accounting officer, was named senior vice president/finance. Penn Traffic is in the process of emerging from bankruptcy. (The Post-Standard - Syracuse, N.Y.)

IDFA NEWS

Hotel Deadline is April 1 for IDFA's Plant Operations Conference
If you're looking to learn about the latest technologies and innovations available for dairy plants, be sure to attend IDFA's Plant Operations Conference on April 26-27 in Chicago. This year's program will review technology developments in filtration, production, and product packaging and tracking. In addition, this popular annual conference will include briefings on the latest management challenges for plant operators. Hotel reservations must be made directly with the Wyndham Chicago (312-573-0300) by next Friday, April 1, in order to guarantee a room. Refer to the IDFA Plant Operations Conference to receive a special room rate. Then, click here to register for the conference!

ODDS-AND-ENDS

Atlanta-based Carvel Corp., a division of Focus Brands, plans to open 23 ice cream stores in the Washington, D.C., metro area by the end of 2006; there are currently four Carvel stores in the D.C. area. The company plans to open 100 stores nationwide this year. (The Washington Post)...Mayfield Dairy Farms is rolling out four new flavors this spring, including newly available Peanut Butter Cup ice cream, which received a rave review in the food section of the Chattanooga Times Free Press in Tennessee. Other new ice cream flavors include Lemon Meringue Pie, Birthday Cake and Grand Slam, a graham cracker-flavored product. Mayfield is a division of Dallas-based Dean Foods Co. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)...A classic emmentaler swiss-style cheese made by Randy Krahenbuhl at Indiana's Fair Oaks Dairy Products was named the winner of last week's 2005 United States Championship Cheese Contest, a biennial event hosted by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA). First runner-up in the contest was an aged raclette made by John Hoyt at Leelanau Cheese, Suttons Bay, Mich., and second runner-up was Cocoa Cardona, a semi-soft goat's milk cheese rubbed with cocoa made by Sid Cook at Carr Valley Cheese, La Valle, Wis. Contest judges evaluated 1,008 cheeses in 42 classes, determining gold, silver and bronze medal winners in each class. For complete results in every class, visit the WCMA website at www.wischeesemakersassn.org.

STOCK MARKET TICKER

As of 3/22/05, 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*		33.26 80.66 49.42 19.47 61.31 13.05 32.20 15.68 22.67 17.92 37.25 32.21 37.99 37.22 17.26 N/A		-0.17 +0.03 -2.10 -0.37 +0.05 +0.00 +0.06 -0.04 -0.41 -0.24 -0.40 +0.09 -0.79 -0.37 +0.34 N/A		-1.04 -0.01 -2.99 -0.53 -0.88 +0.00 -0.73 +0.06 -0.33 -0.35 +0.20 -0.82 -0.97 +0.61 -0.35 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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ABOUT D-BRIEF

D-brief is written by Dairy Field magazine, a Stagnito Communications Inc. publication, www.dairyfield.com. It is provided for the benefit of the industry by the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), www.idfa.org.

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