011109 Sara Lee's Earnings Drop 5%

Chicago - Sara Lee Corp. first quarter earnings dipped 5% as it pushed ahead with its makeover despite the economic downturn, spending heavily on advertising and information technology.

Declining sales of coffee and underwear also weighed on results.

The company, whose products range from Chock full o'Nuts coffee to Hanes underwear to Hillshire Farm sausages, said earnings for its first fiscal quarter were $242 million, or 30 cents per share, compared with $254 million, or 29 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding special items, which included a $29 million boost from sales of 19 ``limited-growth'' businesses, earnings were 26 cents per share. That matched the consensus estimate of analysts interviewed by Thomson Financial/First Call.

Sales for the three months ended Sept. 29 rose 1.4% to $4.52 billion from $4.46 billion.

Excluding divested businesses, operating income fell 11%. Sara Lee cited higher raw material costs in its packaged meats business and an 11% increase in media advertising spending to support investment in key brands and new products, including more Jimmy Dean food products, a Playtex seamless bra and a combination toilet bowl cleaner and air freshener under the Ambi Pur brand.

Strong sales increases were reported in household and knit products, contributing

011110 UFCW Says Campbell's Locks Workers In Texas November 3, 2001 Washington - The following was released by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW): Barricades at the gates of Campbells' Paris, Texas plant are both a symbol and the reality of management's hostile and confrontational approach to dealing with the plant's more than 1,000 workers. After more than thirty years of mutual respect and positive working relations, management has gone on a rampage against the workers, their pay and their benefits. Since Oct. 4, 2001, workers have been locked out of their plant, their jobs and their livelihoods. Campbells' is demanding abandonment of the gua