November 5, 2003

Wells' Dairy to build new corporate offices.... Wisconsin city hopes grant will help Sartori expand.... WestFarm Foods may resume labor talks.... Carvel to expand in Puerto Rico.... Penn Traffic to close 41 stores.... Supermarket labor dispute updates.... New Product Scanner.... Odds-and-Ends.... Stock Market Ticker.... More news at www.idfa.org.

DAIRY BUSINESS BRIEFS

Wells' Dairy Inc. plans to relocate company headquarters from LeMars, Iowa, to a yet-to-be-built central corporate campus in Iowa, Nebraska or South Dakota. The company has requested details on potential sites, infrastructure and financial incentives from the three states; Wells' reports it plans to move no further than 50 miles from its current location. About 400 corporate employees currently housed in seven different buildings in LeMars would move to the new site. Processing facilities in LeMars are expected to remain in operation. (Associated Press)

City officials in Plymouth, Wis., will seek a $1.1 million grant to help convince Sartori Foods to expand operations in a proposed industrial park. The Italian and specialty cheese company currently operates from a corporate office and separate production facility in the city. The grant would supplement "Tax Incremental Finance District" funds available to develop the industrial park. (The Sheboygan Press-Wis.)

Seattle-based WestFarm Foods is "contemplating" a new contract proposal for union workers involved in the longest labor dispute in the dairy processor's 85-year history. The two-month-old dispute involves about 200 workers at the dairy's Seattle and Issaquah plants. No formal talks are scheduled, but WestFarm officials note they hope to meet with Teamsters in the near future. (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Carvel Ice Cream took a step toward global expansion by awarding its first international master license agreement. Development rights for Puerto Rico will go to V&R Corp., which is expected to establish more than 50 Carvel outlets and distribution points over the next five to seven years. V&R Corp. joined Carvel in 1995 as a franchisee and currently operates nine of the 15 current Carvel units in Puerto Rico. Domestically, Atlanta-based Carvel reports it has signed 140 new domestic franchise agreements and has opened more than 95 new Carvel locations in the last 16 months. Carvel currently operates more than 440 franchised and food service locations and distributes ice cream cakes through more than 6,100 supermarkets.

CUSTOMER CLIPS

The Penn Traffic Co. is attempting to emerge from its second bankruptcy in five years by cutting unprofitable stores and offering bonuses to key executives. The Syracuse, N.Y.-based chain operates 211 supermarkets under the P&C, Big Bear, Quality and Bi-Lo banners. In two separate petitions to bankruptcy court, the chain seeks permission to close a total of 41 stores, eliminating about 2,000 jobs of its 16,000 employees. If approved, all 41 stores are expected to close by mid-December, including 12 Big Bear stores in Ohio and West Virginia, 11 Bi-Lo stores in Pennsylvania, 10 P&Cs in New York and Vermont, and eight Quality Markets in New York and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Penn Traffic has requested use of $16.6 million to pay incentives and severance protection to 1,400 key employees believed necessary to reorganize the company. The plan includes $2.3 million in retention bonuses, $4.9 million in performance incentives and $8.9 million in severance protection. Penn Traffic has until January 29 to file its Chapter 11 reorganization plan with the court. (Associated Press)

Supermarket labor disputes update: The St. Louis supermarket work action is over. The 3½-week strike/lockout involved Schnuck Markets Inc., Dierbergs Markets Inc. and SuperValu-owned Shop 'n Save Warehouse Foods Inc. The 10,000 United Food & Commercial Workers grocery workers involved in the dispute approved a new contract on Friday, October 31, and returned to work on Saturday. A federal mediator helped smooth the contract negotiation process, completed on October 29. The four-year contract eliminates medical benefit deductibles, caps prescription drug costs and gives the lowest-paid employees a slightly better raise than what was offered in a proposal rejected a month ago. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Associated Press).... Southern California enters the fourth week of strike/lock-out action by clerks against Safeway Inc. (Vons and Pavilions), The Kroger Co. (Ralphs) and Albertsons Inc.; the dispute began October 13. Hoping to both provide relief to shoppers facing destructive wildfires and to push Ralphs to negotiate separately from the other chains, union representatives reassigned the picketers at nearly 300 Ralphs supermarkets to picket lines at Vons and Albertsons on Friday, October 31. Ralphs reported higher than usual sales for this past weekend. No negotiations have been scheduled. Meanwhile, the UFCW has filed two federal lawsuits seeking to force the three supermarkets to pay for workers' health benefits during the work action. Workers have accrued coverage through at least December, according to the union. Supermarket officials have threatened to terminate striking workers' contributions to health care benefits by November 20, when a $40 million payment is due. (The Press Enterprise-Riverside, Calif.; The Daily News of Los Angeles; Associated Press).... Negotiations have again stalled in a separate Kroger/UFCW dispute in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. Kroger halted extended negotiations with UFCW Local 400 Saturday, with health care remaining a hot button. The strike began Oct. 13 and Kroger has closed 44 stores. Meanwhile, a strike involving 4,000 Kroger union employees and 58 stores in central Indiana has been averted for the time being. Workers rejected the new Kroger contract offer Tuesday, but a federal mediator convinced Kroger and union officials to extend the current contract until November 12 so that talks can continue. Kroger has hired temporary workers in case of a walkout. (Associated Press)

NEW PRODUCT SCANNER

Hyper Cow -- flavored milk fortified with caffeine -- is new from Schroeder Co. The Maplewood, Minn.-based company launches Hyper Cow in Straight Up Strawberry, Chocolate Shock and Mean Mocha Cappuccino flavors via an exclusive distribution agreement at Super America convenience store/fuel stations. The main ingredient is 2% milk, but the product also contains as much caffeine and sugar as a can of regular Coke, and 400 calories per 16-ounce bottle. Bottles feature edgy graphics and cartoon cows with quirky sayings such as "Shut up and drink," designed to appeal to teens. Schroeder will offer samples on college campuses, at football games and skateboarding parks, and will additionally throw a sampling party at Minnesota's Mall of America on November 16 with skateboarding demonstrations. (St Paul Pioneer Press-Minn.)

Unilever division Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. is previewing its first-ever ice cream cookie sandwich, the 'WICH. Set to roll out in early 2004, the 'WICH is vanilla fudge chip ice cream between two soft fudge-swirled chocolate chunk cookies. Product samplings are being held in six cities, including the "Salem 'WICH trials" event in Salem, Mass., last week as part of the town's annual Haunted Happenings celebration.

Cookies and Cream Moo Malt is the latest frozen dessert line extension from Newport, Ky.-based Louis Trauth Dairies, a division of Dean Foods Co. The 12-oz. frozen malt cup retails for 99 cents and is carried in the convenience store channel in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.

IDFA NEWS

New All-Beverage Trade Show Set for Fall 2004 in Tampa
Building on the excitement and relationships formed at Worldwide Food Expo 2003, several co-sponsors, including IDFA, have joined together to launch a new beverage industry trade show event, BevExpo 2004. Scheduled for September 29-October 1 at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Fla., "BevExpo 2004 with Technology Innovations" will be the largest U.S.-based beverage industry trade event devoted exclusively to showcasing the innovations of suppliers in the areas of distribution, production and quality control; ingredients and formulation systems; and sales and marketing supplies and technology tools for the global $700 billion a year beverage business. The new biennial trade event is designed to attract the full range of beverage manufacturers, bottlers, marketers and distributors of bottled water, soft drinks, milk, juices, coffee and tea, beer and other beverages, throughout the United States and Latin America, and around the world. Exhibit sales are in full swing! For more information on BevExpo 2004, click here.
http://www.idfa.org/news/releases/2003/pr103003.cfm

ODDS-AND-ENDS

Russia's Wimm-Bill-Dann has completed $13 million in upgrades at its Rubtsovsk dairy plant in Altai territory of Russia and has started production of Lamber hard cheese. The plant's cheese capacity is now 15,000 tons annually. (Economic News).... F. Cappiello Dairy Products Inc., Schenectady, N.Y., recently installed two 20,000-gallon milk silos to help meet production demands for its specialty mozzarella and ricotta cheeses. The company projects its sales will rise about 10% in both 2003 and 2004. (The Times Union-Albany, N.Y.).... Nearly $36,000 of feta cheese made in Minnesota was lost to an apparent scam in California. Aegean Cheese, Austin, Minn., shipped feta cheese to a man claiming to represent the American General Trading Company of Santa Fe, but the bill has not been paid. The California Highway Patrol notes the case could be part of a scam in which merchandise is ordered, never paid for, and moved to a warehouse for resale. IDFA has previously alerted its members about such scams; members can contact Clay Detlefsen at IDFA for more information. (Associated Press, IDFA)

STOCK MARKET TICKER

As of 11/04/03, 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		23.86 30.70 77.25 44.77 29.81 77.60 23.94 10.38 29.15 17.26 16.45 20.20 25.83 24.74 34.34 35.89 20.02 07.77		-0.24 +0.54 -0.08 -0.38 +0.02 +0.12 -0.04 +0.03 -0.08 -0.44 +0.00 -0.86 -0.06 -0.45 +0.15 -0.01 +0.62 -0.20		-0.06 +0.60 -0.16 -0.43 -0.74 +1.05 +0.00 +0.06 -0.15 -0.20 +0.49 -0.94 -0.62 -0.17 +0.09 +0.70 -1.18 -0.18
Source: Yahoo! Finance

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