040913 A Recap of Conagra's Year

Omaha, NB - After selling its fresh beef and pork divisions in 2002 and announcing the sale of its other commodity businesses last summer, ConAgra largely completed Chief Executive Bruce Rohde's transformation of the company to a maker of grocery products, food service and food ingredients.

Between the company's 2003 annual meeting, and this year's meeting today, ConAgra has consolidated Rohde's changed focus.

It also has centralized several functions at the Omaha headquarters, sought efficiencies through other consolidations and changed its business in other ways in an effort to reach Rohde's goal of turning ConAgra into "America's favorite food company."

Here is a recap of ConAgra's year:

Nov. 24, 2003: Units sold

Completed the sale of ConAgra Poultry Co. to Pilgrims Pride Corp., and seed-and-fertilizer maker United Agri Products to buyout firm Apollo Management LP and United Agri Products management. The sales of the two commodity companies completed ConAgra's multiyear transformation into a packaged foods-only company. The deals were valued at the time at $1.27 billion.

Dec. 4, 2003: Stock buyback

Announced that it would buy back shares worth $1 billion, or about 40 million shares. The company said its recent divestitures had left it flush with cash after paying down much of its debt. Through the end of August 2004, the company had spent $600 million to repurchase 22 million shares.

Dec. 11, 2003: Goldstone joins board

Announced that it would add Steven Goldstone to its board of directors. Goldstone, retired chairman and chief executive of Nabisco Group Holdings, is the only board member other than Rohde who has worked in the packaged food industry.

January 2004: Plants to close

Said its hot dog plant in Queenstown, Md., would close this year as part of a campaign to consolidate production in newer, more efficient plants. ConAgra has since said that it will close at least four plants nationwide and expand at least five others, eliminating jobs in some cities and creating them in others on a roughly one-to-one basis.

Feb. 3, 2004: Sells Casa de Oro

Sold Casa de Oro, its tortilla company, to a Kansas investment fund for an undisclosed price. The company's tortillas didn't fit ConAgra's high-margin packaged foods strategy, the company said. One of Casa de Oro's two plants employs 240 in Omaha.

February 2004: Low-carb meals

Life Choice, the first line of low-carbohydrate frozen meals from a major food company, hit groceries. ConAgra sells nearly three of every five frozen meals in America. In May, the company made its second big new product launch of the year - Banquet Crock Pot Classics, a line of frozen foods designed for slow cookers.

Some of the company's other new products in the past year: Golden Cuisine, frozen dinners designed for the elderly; Butterball chicken and turkey strips; trans fat-free Parkay, Blue Bonnet and Fleischmans spreads; Pam cooking spray varieties specially designed for grilling and baking; The Max, a line of pizzas for school cafeterias formulated to have less fat and more fiber than most pizzas.

March: Jobs to Omaha

Announced it is bringing at least 440 jobs to Omaha. The company is spending $6.2 million on two new research and development buildings on its downtown campus. Research and development and marketing for all products now are done from the Omaha headquarters, instead of separately for each product.

May 10, 2004: Poison pill plan

Ended the company's "poison pill" plan, which had made takeovers more difficult. Shareholders voted in September 2003, to recommend that the company end the plan. But the sponsors of the recommendation, two brothers from California, said the new plan approved by the board didn't satisfy them because it included a provision to allow the board to bring the plan back.

May 2004: Turkey to oil

Renewable Environmental Solutions, a company half-owned by ConAgra, began creating crude oil and natural gas from inedible turkey parts. The company's plant in Carthage, Mo., uses a process called "thermal conversion." ConAgra said the plant will be up to full capacity - 500 barrels of oil a day - by October. There are plans for three more similar plants, though none has yet broken ground.

July 2, 2004: K.C. shootings

A worker at the Kansas City, Kan., meat processing plant shoots and kills five other workers and himself.

Aug. 12, 2004: Executive turnover

Released its annual report, which included 15 new officers. Thirteen officers from last year's report were gone, including former Chief Financial Officer James O'Donnell, who said in June that he was transitioning into retirement, and former Chief Operations Officer F. Martin Thrasher, who left in April. Chief Information Officer Kenneth Gerhardt said in March that he would retire but gave no date.

Aug. 15, 2004: Ultragrain

Unveiled Ultragrain, a whole-grain flour that tastes more like white flour. Food Ingredients President Dave Colo called Ultragrain his division's most important new product in the past 20 years.

September 2004: Warehouses

Continued to shutter small warehouses nationwide. The company has closed 1,800 in the past two years, replacing them with 14 state-of-the-art large warehouses. As of September, 10 of the new warehouses were operational, an executive said in a presentation to investors.

Sept. 22, 2004: Stock price

Closed at $25.96 Wednesday, up $4, or about 18%, in the past year.

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