September 24, 2003

Blue Bell extends reach to Florida.... Kraft Foods gets training grant.... Sales updates for ConAgra, Wimm-Bill-Dann.... Teamsters extend WestFarm picket.... Wendy's breaks into convenience milk for kids meals.... New Sears stores to sell groceries.... St. Louis grocery workers contract in the works.... New Product Scanner.... HACCP training next month.... Odds-and-Ends...Stock Market Ticker...More news at www.idfa.org.

DAIRY BUSINESS BRIEFS

A new $1.5 million, 40-employee distribution facility in Tampa, Fla., will expand Brenham, Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries distribution into supermarkets in the Tampa Bay area next month. The company's Blue Bell ice cream has previously been offered to Florida consumers via the restaurant channel. (St. Petersburg Times-Florida)

Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods N.A. will receive $105,000 from Idaho's Workforce Development Training Fund to help train 35 new employees, who will man a soon-to-be up-and-running natural cheese line at its Rupert, Idaho, cream cheese facility. Equipment for the unspecified natural cheese line was installed in the plant last year. Kraft cut 50 cream cheese jobs at the plant in late 2002; the current full-time staff is 80. (Times-News)

In other Kraft Foods news, the company has reorganized shift work at its Wausau, Wis., production facility to a four-day, 10-hour-day workweek. The change will eliminate 16 full-time jobs, with 244 positions remaining. The facility makes the cheese powder for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese products. (Wausau Daily Herald-Wausau, Wis.)

Sales fell 33 percent at Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra Foods during its first quarter, which ended August 24. ConAgra posted $4.4 billion in sales for the quarter, compared with $6.6 billion in the first quarter of its previous fiscal year. Profits dropped 14 percent to $195 million for the quarter, compared to $228 million the year prior. Profits and sales were impacted by the 2002 sale of the company's cheese, fresh meat and canned seafood businesses, as the company focuses on its packaged and frozen foods brands. ConAgra plans to close the sale of its poultry business by the end of this year. (Associated Press)

For the first half of 2003, Wimm-Bill-Dann, Russia's largest producer of juices and milk, reports that its sales were up 17 percent, reaching $472.6 million (sales of dairy products totaled $321.7 million, sales of juices were $150.6 million). However, the growth of administrative and marketing costs pushed its net profit down 21 percent to $17.7 million. Standard & Poor's recently ranked Wimm-Bill-Dann first among Russia's 45 largest companies regarding transparency and disclosure of financial information. In other news, the company plans to expand its processing empire into the Central Asia markets of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. (What The Papers Say-Russia, S&P)

WestFarm Foods Teamsters report that they will extend pickets to three additional Washington state WestFarm Foods processing facilities this week. When contract negotiations with Local 66 union workers at the company's Seattle and Issaquah facilities broke down Labor Day weekend, WestFarm locked out 200 workers. The contract expired July 31.

CUSTOMER CLIPS

Beginning this week, Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's Restaurants will offer eight-ounce, single-serve plastic containers of reduced-fat (2%) white milk or lowfat (1%) chocolate milk as Kids' Meal beverage options in a four-market test. The test also offers a fresh fruit cup (honeydew melon and cantaloupe chunks) as an alternative to french fries in the chain's Kids' Meal. The test is taking place in 420 Wendy's restaurants in Columbus, Ohio; Miami; Philadelphia; and Raleigh, N.C. The theme -- "Let Kids Be Choosy" -- tags both TV advertising and in-store merchandising materials. Wendy's previously offered reduced-fat white milk in paper cartons as a Kids' Meal option, but not chocolate milk. Both types of milk and the fruit cup will be also offered on the restaurant's main menu, priced at 89 cents and $1.39 respectively.

Dairy processors may find a new customer in Sears, Roebuck & Co. The retailer is making a foray into the mass merchandise channel with last week's unveiling of its Sears Grand store concept in West Jordan, Utah. Store offerings include a full-fledged grocery section that includes milk, juice and ice cream; other expanded product lines build on traditional Sears department store niches, such as tools. The 210,000 square-foot Sears Grand store is expected to be the largest of five to be opened over the next two years: two in Las Vegas and Gurnee, Ill., are expected to open in 2004, and two other openings are planned for 2005 at undecided locations. Sears has 850 traditional department stores, typically found in regional malls. (Associated Press)

A union contract for 10,000 United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655 members in three St. Louis supermarket chains is in the works. All Local 655 workers at Schnuck Markets Inc., Dierbergs Markets and Shop 'n Save stores in the St. Louis area will be part of the four-year contract tentatively agreed upon by negotiators. Results of a member vote on the deal are expected on September 30. In the past, the union negotiated separate labor deals at each of the chains and has previously authorized strikes against Dierbergs and Schnuck. The union is working jointly with the three supermarkets (and other major chains) to help the supermarket industry address competitive issues with non-union Wal-Mart operations. (Associated Press)

NEW PRODUCT SCANNER

Wells' Dairy Inc., Le Mars, Iowa, introduces Blue Bunny No Sugar Added Reduced Fat Double Strawberry ice cream a blend of strawberry ice cream, chunks of strawberries, and strawberry sauce sweetened with SPLENDA®. The product has 110 calories and four grams of fat per half-cup serving.

LaFarge, Wis.-based Organic Valley is rolling out new single-serve organic milk in regular and chocolate versions. The 2% milk is packaged in 11-ounce Holstein-patterned recyclable plastic bottles with screw-on caps; SRP is $1.49.

IDFA NEWS

Take the First Step to HACCP Certification with IDFA Short Course
In order to help dairy plant operators become HACCP-certified, IDFA will hold an Advanced HACCP Short Course for the Dairy and Juice Industries on October 27-28 at the Chicago Hilton & Towers. Held in conjunction with Worldwide Food Expo 2003, this program is being offered exclusively to participants in the IDFA HACCP Certification Program, a multi-faceted food safety training initiative. "The intimate nature of this program will provide dairy professionals with the one-on-one training necessary for a thorough understanding of HACCP principles and procedures," said Ellen Brophy, IDFA senior director of educational services and business development. "With so many dairy processors heading to Chicago for Worldwide Food Expo, the timing of this meeting will make it easier than ever for dairy professionals to take that first step toward becoming HACCP-certified." For complete information, click here. http://www.idfa.org/meetings/haccp-short_agenda.cfm

ODDS-AND-ENDS

Potential listeria contamination caused Ariza Cheese Co., Paramount, Calif., to recall Cotija Cheese packaged in both vacuum-packed plastic and foam tray/plastic wrap. The cheese was manufactured from April 21-25 and was distributed in retail stores in California, Texas and New York. No illness has been reported from the products. (Associated Press).... About 3.2 million Dannon water bottles with push-pull caps were voluntarily recalled last week because the push-pull drinking spout can come off unexpectedly. While no injuries have been reported, there have been 10 complaints to safety regulators about the spouts. Brands included in the recall are Dannon Fluoride to Go, Pure American, Enon Springs, Alhambra Junior Sport Drinking Water and Sparkletts Junior Sport Drinking Water. (Reuters).... In passing: Donald Turner, 75, owner and operator of Salem, N.H.-based Turner's Dairy Co., died September 14 following a sudden illness. The business is the last independent commercial dairy company in New Hampshire, supplying retailers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. (The Union Leader-Manchester N.H.)

STOCK MARKET TICKER

As of 09/23/03, 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 Horizon Organic/HCOW 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		21.84 30.15 77.53 47.50 29.95 73.48 23.94 10.00 29.40 18.52 15.94 24.22 26.20 24.92 35.07 35.85 19.10 10.25		-0.12 +0.23 +0.12 +0.56 -0.15 +0.29 -0.01 -0.03 +0.20 +0.37 -0.08 +0.02 -0.20 +0.04 -0.19 +0.26 -0.10 +0.14		-0.78 +0.61 +0.13 -0.23 -0.04 +0.93 -0.01 +0.10 -0.08 +0.72 -0.69 +0.73 -1.60 +0.29 +0.32 +0.87 -0.15 -0.03
Source: Yahoo! Finance

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