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August 25, 2004

Wells' Dairy buys frozen treat brands...Parmalat files $10 billion lawsuit against auditors...Baskin-Robbins creates international marketing fund...New Product Scanner...Wendy's milk sales hit record 1 million bottles per week...Winn-Dixie results fall with restructuring...Odds-and-Ends.... Stock Market Ticker.... More news at www.idfa.org.

DAIRY BUSINESS BRIEFS

Wells' Dairy Inc., Le Mars, Iowa, has acquired FrozFruit (all-natural fruit bars) and Chill Ice (creamy fruit ice) brands of frozen treat products from Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Fruit-Ices Corp. Wells' also acquired the lease on the Clovis, N.M., Fruit-Ices processing facility where many of the acquired products are made. About 15 full-time and 18 part-time workers will become Wells' employees. Fruit-Ices will continue to manufacture other licensed products including Bazooka Ice, a bubble gum-flavored frozen dessert product. (Associated Press)

Parmalat SpA has filed a $10 billion lawsuit in Illinois against former auditors Deloitte & Touche and Grant Thornton. Italian dairy giant Parmalat alleges that in some cases the global network of Deloitte Touche and Grant Thornton actively took part in the "looting" of the company prior to its collapse, failed to perform proper audits system-wide and ignored potential "fraud flags" from its member firms. (United Press International)

To support Baskin-Robbins store marketing efforts internationally, Allied Domecq Quick Service Restaurants (ADQSR) and joint venture partner, B-R 31 Ice Cream Co., Ltd. (Baskin-Robbins Japan) have formed and will co-finance a Baskin-Robbins Global Marketing Fund. Randolph, Mass.-based ADQSR's 11,000-plus U.S. franchisees and 1,862 Baskin-Robbins stores in 30 international markets (including 600 shops in Japan) will make contributions based on retail sales. The fund will support stronger product and program development, event sponsorships, market research, and the future implementation of global media support such as online and satellite TV advertising. International marketing efforts are expected to begin in January 2005. (Company report)

NEW PRODUCT SCANNER

Just in time for back-to-school, Boulder, Colo.-based Horizon Organic is rolling out organic beverages, including smoothies, banana single-serve milk and single-serve organic juices. The fat-free smoothies— Wild Berry Blast, Strawberry Banana Splash and Tropical Fruit Punch—contain nonfat organic yogurt, real fruit juices and NutraFlora(R), a prebiotic bacteria that increases calcium absorption and improves overall digestive health. Suggested retail price (SRP) is $3.99 per four-pack. Reduced-fat banana milk will join five existing flavors: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, orange cream and 2%; its SRP is $1.09. Shelf-stable, 100% juices in apple, fruit punch and grape flavors carry an SRP of $5.49 per eight-pack. (Company report)

Toronto-based CoolBrands International Inc. will produce and market frozen desserts under the Crayola brand, with an early 2005 launch planned. Products will include pops, bars, sandwiches, cups, cones, sundaes and shakes as well as ice creams in sizes ranging from a pint to a gallon. (The Toronto Star)

CUSTOMER CLIPS

Weekly milk sales have hit 1 million units just one month after Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's International's national rollout of milk in 8-oz. single-serve plastic bottles. The milk is offered as a soda substitution in children's meals and as an a la carte item. Wendy's restaurants previously sold about 65,000 gabletop-packaged milk units a week. (Associated Press)

Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. reported a loss from continuing operations of $2.1 million, including $12.8 million in one-time charges associated with restructuring, for the fiscal fourth quarter which ended on June 30. For the fiscal year, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Winn-Dixie lost $50.8 million from continuing operations and $100.4 million overall, compared with a net profit of $239.2 million in fiscal 2003. Discontinued operations include 156 stores, and manufacturing and distribution facilities in the process of being closed or sold. Sales from continuing operations fell 3.6 percent in fiscal 2004 to $10.6 billion. Winn-Dixie's restructuring also includes brand-related initiatives; it is testing new programs in eight of its Miami-Fort Lauderdale markets and if successful, plans to roll out the programs to all 92 area stores by March 2005. (Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville)

IDFA NEWS

Early Registration Discounts for BevExpo End This Week
There are just a few days left to take advantage of early registration discounts for BevExpo, coming next month to Tampa, Fla. Milk and other beverage industry executives and managers in R&D, quality, operations, marketing, merchandising and logistics should register by August 27 to qualify for discounted rates. BevExpo, September 29-October 1, features exhibits on formulation, processing, packaging and marketing for the beverage industry, including milk and dairy drinks, bottled water, juice and juice drinks, beer, coffee and tea. IDFA, Beverage Marketing Corporation and others have compiled the most comprehensive beverage conference of the year. Be sure to act now - Hotels are filling up! For complete programming information or to register, click here.

ODDS-AND-ENDS

Sales of Laughing Cow cheese from Bel/Kaukauna USA jumped 250% from a year ago with help from a mention in "The South Beach Diet" book. The Little Chute, Wis.-based company expects to sell 12 million pounds of the individually-wrapped cheese wedges this year by importing more of the creamy, Swiss-cheese-type product from France and by expanding production at its Kentucky facility. However, the company reports current demand is double that poundage. Each 3/4-oz. wedge has 1 gram of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fat and about 35 calories; retail prices range from $3.49 to $4.49 per eight-wedge pack. (Associated Press)...The University of Pittsburgh will celebrate both National Banana Split Day and the 100th anniversary of the banana split's invention by a Pitt alumnus with its "From Pitt Came the Split: 100 Years of Banana Splits" celebration. About 4,000 servings of banana split-flavored ice cream will be served this week to incoming Pitt freshmen and their families. Pitt alumnus David Evans Strickler invented the split as an apprentice at a Latrobe, Pa., drugstore. (University report)...A Willow Creek, Mont.-area rancher was one of several people nationwide to participate in International Dairy Queen Inc.'s Aug. 24 promotion, which rewarded consumers who brought a bovine to a DQ with a free MooLatte, a frozen blended coffee beverage. Skip Hougland of Montana brought Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a 10-year-old Scottish Highland steer known as "Charlie," to town to claim his frosty reward. The promotion has garnered wide-spread media coverage, including mentions on NBC Nightly News, ESPN and Good Morning America. (Company report, Associated Press)

STOCK MARKET TICKER

As of 8/24/04, market close.

Company/Symbol		Last Trade		Change over Previous Close		Change over Last Week's D-brief
ConAgra Foods/CAG Dean Foods/DF Dreyer's/DRYR General Mills/GIS Groupe Danone/DA Hershey Foods/HSY Ingles Markets/IMKTA 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		26.09 37.44 79.46 46.63 16.01 47.98 11.45 31.29 16.41 19.09 20.45 31.90 27.26 34.51 33.17 13.44 05.55		+0.10 +0.17 +0.06 +0.08 -0.08 +0.31 +0.33 +0.04 +0.18 +0.14 +0.02 -0.23 -1.24 -0.02 +0.27 +0.24 -0.11		+0.04 +1.16 -0.01 +0.68 -0.26 -0.01 +0.29 +0.81 +0.67 +0.29 -0.21 +0.30 -0.93 -0.42 -0.88 +0.23 -0.53
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.

D-brief is sponsored by Polytainers, Curwood and TIC Gums. Polytainers is a leader in the design, production and printing of thinwall rigid plastic containers for the dairy and food industries. Learn more about this sponsor at www.polytainersinc.com. Curwood develops and manufactures high-performance, high-barrier, polymer-based packaging materials. For more information about Curwood products, visit www.curwood.com. TIC Gums is America's oldest supplier of hydrocolloids to food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and industrial companies worldwide. To learn more about this sponsor, visit www.ticgums.com.

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