'More to accomplish' for Campbell

Campbell Soup said on Wednesday that its quarterly net income fell 21 per cent as it spent more to market and improve its brands. The company, which makes Pepperidge Farm cookies and Prego pasta sauces as well as the well-known red-and-white-labelled Campbell's soups, posted net income of $96 million (€105m) for the third quarter ended 28 April, compared with $122 million a year earlier. The company's net sales for the quarter rose 8 per cent to $1.37 billion. Worldwide shipments of wet soup were flat, reflecting a 2 per cent rise in the United States and a 3 per cent decline internationally. Campbell last July unveiled a costly restructuring plan calling for additional spending of up to $600 million to bolster marketing, improve product quality and drive up soup sales. Total marketing spending in the third quarter rose 5 per cent before the impact of foreign currency translation. "Although the rate of decline in Campbell's condensed soups moderated, we still have much more to accomplish with this business," chief executive Douglas Conant said in a statement. "As planned, quality improvements across the entire condensed line will continue during the next three soup seasons." Campbell said it is maintaining its full-year earnings estimate of $1.30 a share, excluding the impact of restructuring in Australia. Conant also confirmed that the world's largest soup maker was pursuing possible additions to its portfolio of brands. "We are actively looking at a number of options to strengthen the portfolio," he told analysts during a conference call to discuss the company's fiscal third-quarter earnings. He and other senior executives declined to provide further details, saying the timing was premature. Conant did, however, say that it is unlikely Campbell would be expanding into any new geographic markets or product categories in the near term. In May of 2001, Campbell bought several soup brands from Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever for about $900 million, making its the leading soup maker in Europe.

'More to accomplish' for Campbell

Campbell Soup said on Wednesday that its quarterly net income fell 21 per cent as it spent more to market and improve its brands.

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