Japan’s Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said recently that it was finishing its rehabilitation plan in September, six months earlier than an originally set deadline of March 2006, due to improving performances and financial conditions backed by a drastic business realignment and personnel cuts. Snow Brand was hit by a massive food poisoning caused by its milk products in 2000. It now says sales of dairy products, such as butter, have been on a recovery trend.
Kraft Foods Inc., says it may raise prices after posting lower third-quarter earnings. Kraft also cut its full-year profit outlook, pressured by rising costs for packaging, fuel and ingredients such as nuts. The maker of Kraft Cheese and Oreo Cookies now expects commodity costs to be up $800 million from last year, more than three times its initial expectations. The largest U.S. food company said profit fell in the quarter to $674 million, or 40 cents a share, from $779 million, or 46 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose 4.4% to $8.06 billion.
Organic Valley Family of Farms, has been named Start Magazine’s Mid-Market Manufacturer of the Year. The business magazine’s award singles out American manufacturing companies that have excelled in the manufacturing industry as a whole.
Saputo plans to close its cheese production site near Allentown, Pa. and lay off 115 employees. The plant was scheduled to stop making cheese Oct. 29 and end production of other milk products by March, the company said. Saputo said a decision on the sale of the plant will come later. The 21-year-old facility operated as Beatrice Cheese before becoming part of ConAgra of Omaha, Neb., in 1990.
