December 10, 2003

Schreiber Foods plans expansion in Utah .... Organic Valley sales hit record high .... Communities vie for Wells' headquarters .... China's premier to visit U.S. dairy operation today .... Supermarket labor disputes update .... Kroger profits dip .... Facility registration deadline .... Odds-and-Ends .... Stock Market Ticker.... More news at www.idfa.org.

DAIRY BUSINESS BRIEFS

Schreiber Foods Inc., Green Bay, Wis., plans a $24 million cream cheese expansion at its processing facility in Logan, Utah. The facility already processes or packages a combined 170 million pounds of cheese annually. The expansion will receive $1 million in city and state financial incentives. (Deseret News - Salt Lake City, Utah)

Organic Valley's 2003 sales of $156 million are the highest in the co-op's history and a 25 percent increase over last year's sales of $125 million. The LaFarge, Wis.-based company's fluid dairy product line introduced a new brand identity in 2003, featuring a "red barn in a tranquil rustic setting." The co-op also launched 11-ounce plain and chocolate single-serve reduced-fat organic milks in Holstein-patterned screw-cap bottles. In 2004, the co-op projects that its sales will hit $189 million and plans to expand its Montana, Wisconsin and Minnesota organic school milk programs to other states.

Sioux City, Iowa, is the latest community to try to lure the $30 million Wells' Dairy Inc.'s headquarters project with the promise of economic development funding. The current Wells' hometown of LeMars has likewise offered incentives, as has South Sioux City, Neb., and several other communities in Iowa and South Dakota. In addition, the state of Iowa is expected to offer state-based incentives to Wells' in the coming weeks. The construction project aims to consolidate the company's headquarters personnel under one roof. (Associated Press)

The premier of China, Wen Jiabao, will visit a Massachusetts dairy farm/ice cream operation today as part of his schedule of political, corporate and academic outreach. The premier will visit Richardson's Farms, a Middleton producer with an ice cream stand complete with a view of the operation's 300 Holsteins. Richardson's ships ice cream to about 400 ice cream stands, restaurants and hotels in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. (Associated Press)

CUSTOMER CLIPS

Supermarket labor disputes update: Renewed negotiations between three Southern California supermarket giants and the United Food & Commercial Workers broke off again Sunday. Safeway Inc. (Vons and Pavilions), The Kroger Co. (Ralphs) and Albertsons Inc. had been meeting with UFCW negotiators and a federal mediator; the mediator reports he halted talks, as issues between the grocers and union "remain difficult." The union plans to extend picket lines to "high-profile cities" where Safeway Inc. stores operate. (Press Enterprise - Riverside, Calif.) .... Kroger Co. and the United Food and Commercial Workers labor union representing workers in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky have tentatively agreed to a contract. 3,300 workers locked out of 44 Kroger stores in the three states will now vote to determine if the two-month dispute will end. Neither side discussed the terms of the agreement in detail, but the union reports that health care concerns were addressed. (Associated Press, company report)

In related Kroger news, the company reported that its earnings dropped 57 percent from a year ago and attributed the decrease to labor disputes in various regions of the country. Kroger earned $110.2 million in the third quarter, as compared to the $254.6 million earned one year ago. Sales for the third quarter increased 3.8 percent to $12 billion, compared with $11.7 billion in 2002. Nine-month sales are $40.7 billion, compared to $39.2 billion a year ago. Earnings for the first nine months were $652 million, compared to $823.9 million in 2002. (Associated Press)

IDFA NEWS

Food Facilities Registration Deadline is This Friday
IDFA strongly urges food and dairy companies to make sure that they are in compliance with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) new biosecurity regulations regarding facility registration by the deadline of December 12, 2003. FDA has reportedly received a significantly lower number of facility registrations to date than anticipated. As the law stands, all domestic and foreign food facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food for consumption in the United States must register with FDA by this Friday. "We suspect that many food facilities may not have registered due to FDA's announcement about a four-month discretionary enforcement period beginning on December 12. However, we want to remind companies that 'discretionary enforcement' is not the same as 'no enforcement'," said Clay Detlefsen, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs and counsel. "IDFA believes that companies should make, at the very least, a good faith effort to register by December 12." In addition to FDA's free registration service, IDFA has partnered with a company to offer a fee-based value-added registration service to assist the dairy and food industries in meeting this regulatory requirement. For more information, click here.
http://www.idfa.org/news/stories/2003/12/foodfacilitiesreg.cfm

ODDS-AND-ENDS

Stocking stuffers? Collectible plush cows honoring the 109-year history of Hershey Foods Corp. are being launched in a partnership with The Boyds Collection Ltd. Each 10-inch cow will represent an era in American history and a significant event in the Hershey, Pa.-based candymaker's history. The first cow, Chocolate, was inspired by company founder Milton Hershey's first bull, Chocolate Segis Pontiac Alcarta. Four plush cows will be introduced annually ($16.95 each), and sold exclusively through www.hersheyboyds.com .... Students in Utah and Idaho who receive "A"s on their report cards will receive free Viva Slam milk drinks, donated by Meadow Gold and a chance at a $1,000 scholarship savings account from Zions Bank. Students receive milk gift certificates by presenting their grades at bank branches. In addition to the grand prize, students have a shot at two $150 scholarship savings accounts. (Deseret News - Salt Lake City, Utah) .... Three dairy farmers in the remote regions of Austria have created a method to heat their farm buildings with the warm milk from their herds. The producers created a milk-fueled heat-exchange system from their combined herd of 140 animals. The system uses milk (95F degrees from the udder) to heat a 120-gallon water tank to a temperature of 135F degrees in less than an hour; the heated water is then circulated in an under-floor system. (Sunday Telegraph-London)

STOCK MARKET TICKER

As of 12/09/03, 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		25.50 32.59 77.28 45.90 31.05 77.07 23.91 10.00 31.40 17.31 16.81 19.92 27.98 25.73 35.19 33.05 16.58 09.16		+0.11 -0.15 -0.01 -0.16 -0.22 -0.76 +0.00 -0.44 -0.31 -0.58 -0.11 -0.07 +0.43 -0.42 +0.18 -0.27 -0.30 +0.37		+0.63 -0.50 +0.03 +0.45 -0.42 -1.06 +0.01 -0.18 -0.82 -0.96 -0.14 -0.33 +0.88 +0.04 +0.12 -0.70 -1.00 +0.54
Source: Yahoo! Finance

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