Wrigley appoints Albert Manzone as group vice president

Chewing gum manufacturer Wrigley Jr. Company has appointed Albert Manzone as group vice president and managing director for western Europe. He reports to Peter Hempstead, senior vice president for worldwide strategy and new business.

Mr Manzone brings 20 years of experience with consumer packaged good companies, including 11 years with PepsiCo where he most recently served as senior vice president and general manager, PepsiCo shelf stable juices North America responsible for the Tropicana, Dole and Ocean Spray brands.

Mr. Hempstead said: "Albert's world-class business savvy and leadership are important assets to Wrigley as the company continues to maximize its strengths in Europe and builds on our successes there."

Whole Foods extended the date of its tender offer to Wild Oats shareholders several times, most recently to yesterday, as the company waited for regulatory and legal permission to complete the offer.

Flowers Foods Inc. Chief Financial Officer Jimmy M. Woodward is stepping down Sept. 15 due to "family reasons," the Thomasville, Ga., baked goods company reported Monday.

Woodward, who was CFO since 2000, will still advise the company on financial and related matters.

Flowers Foods (NYSE: FLO) also named Corporate Controller R. Steve Kinsey as the new CFO.

Kinsey joined Flowers in 1989 as a tax associate. He was promoted to tax manager in 1994, named director of tax in 1998, and has served as controller since 2002. In 2003, Kinsey was promoted to vice president and corporate controller.

Campbell appoints Kirk Elliott VP of corporate strategy

Campbell Soup Company, a manufacturer of branded convenience food products, has appointed Kirk Elliott as its vice president for corporate strategy. He will be responsible for the company's strategic planning process and for advancing major strategic initiatives. Additionally, he will oversee Campbell's licensing program.

Mr Elliott will report to Carl Johnson, Campbell's senior vice president and chief strategy officer.

Mr Johnson said: "Kirk is an innovative, inspirational, and results-oriented leader. His blend of entrepreneurial, strategic, and line management experience will make Kirk an asset to Campbell and his considerable expertise will complement our strong strategic planning capabilities."

Mr Elliott has more than 20 years of experience in strategy, business development, and line management. He joins Campbell from Elliott Oriental Medicine in San Diego, a company he founded in 2005. Prior to that, he spent eight years at Nabisco International in business development, planning, and line management, culminating in a role as managing director, Nabisco Taiwan, Hong Kong & Asia Export.

Colgate Announces Key Management Appointments

The Colgate-Palmolive Company announced the appointment of four key executives to senior leadership positions reporting to Ian Cook, president and CEO.

Michael Tangney, 62, was named chief operating officer for the European, Greater Asia and Africa Divisions. A 35-year Colgate veteran, Mr. Tangney has led Colgate's business operations in Latin America to record levels of sales and profit growth since 1993.

Seamus McBride, 52, was named executive vice president, president, North America and Worldwide Commercial Effectiveness. Continuing to lead Colgate's U.S. business operations as he has done successfully since 2002, Mr. McBride will now assume responsibility for Canada, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. He will also direct Colgate's global commercial effectiveness efforts.

Fabian Garcia, 47, was named executive vice president, president, Latin America and Global Sustainability. Since 2003 when he joined Colgate, Mr. Garcia has led the company's operations in Greater Asia, growing sales and profits throughout those regions including Russia.

Franck Moison, 53, was named president global business development and technology. Mr. Moison brings more than 29 years of Colgate experience to this role leading product development and sourcing worldwide. Since 2000, he has successfully led Colgate's business in Europe, and more recently assumed responsibility for Central Europe and Australia.

Pepsi to Buy Russian Juice Maker

Pepsi, the world's number two soft drinks maker, is in talks to buy Russia's top juice maker Lebedyansky, which is being auctioned, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Russian business daily Kommersant said PepsiCo had agreed to buy over 76 percent of Lebedyansky for $1.5-$2 billion. The sources would not confirm terms.

The company's closing price on Friday put its market capitalization at $1.95 billion.

Spokesmen for Lebedyansky and PepsiCo both declined to comment.

Deutsche Bank  is advising Lebedyansky while Dresdner Bank and Russia's Renaissance Capital are advising PepsiCo, the sources said. The banks declined to comment.

Kommersant said the deal would take place before the year end, sending Lebedyansky shares up 3.9 percent to 2,530 roubles ($99.21).

PepsiCo, like rival Coca-Cola Co., is focusing on emerging markets to help offset weakness at home, where people are choosing healthier drinks like bottled waters and teas over traditional soft drinks.

PepsiCo controls around a fifth of the Russian soft drinks market and around a third of potato chip sales, but currently controls just 2 percent of the Russian juice market through the Tropicana brand.

CocaCola controls over a fifth of the Russian juice sector after the $530 million purchase of producer Multon in 2005.

PepsiCo has no juice-producing assets in Russia, and Lebedyansky, which has over 30 percent of the juice market, is seen as an attractive target for the beverage giant.

Analysts said the deal could have become more likely after private equity group Lion Capital agreed to buy PepsiCo's previous target, Russia's number three fruit juice maker, Nidan Soki.

"We have long seen Lebedyansky, with its leading market position in juice and its best-in-class distribution system, as an attractive takeover target for international food and beverage companies," Alfa Bank said in a note.

About 23 percent of Lebedyansky shares are freely floated, while 76 percent are controlled by a group of Russian businessmen including former director Nikolay Bortsov and his son Yuri, the firm's chairman.

Kraft May Be Seeking Buyer
For Its Post Cereals Business

Kraft Foods Inc. is in the early stages of finding a buyer for its Post cereals business, the No. 3 U.S. cereal maker by sales after Kellogg Co. and General Mills Inc., people familiar with the matter said.

A logical bidder would be PepsiCo Inc., whose Quaker unit owns the Cap'n Crunch and Life cereal brands, these people say. Post may fetch as much as $3 billion, one of the people said. Kraft, the largest U.S. food company by sales, has sent financial information on the unit to potential bidders, this person said, and if the unit is successfully auctioned, a deal could be signed later this year.

PepsiCo is seeking to buy businesses to add products. Last month, Chairman and Chief Executive Indra Nooyi said the food-and-beverage giant has a "robust" pipeline of potential acquisitions around the world, ranging in value from $5 million to $2 billion.

A Kraft spokeswoman declined to comment. A PepsiCo spokeswoman declined to say whether the Purchase, N.Y., company is talking with Kraft to buy Post.

Other logical bidders may include General Mills and Ralcorp Holdings Inc., which makes private-label foods, including cereal. A General Mills spokeswoman declined to comment. A Ralcorp spokesman couldn't be reached for comment.

Kraft's Post cereals include such healthier adult brands as Grape Nuts, Raisin Bran and Shredded Wheat, as well as sugary children's cereals Cocoa Pebbles, Honey-Comb and Alpha-Bits. Kraft's snacks-and-cereals unit posted 3.7% organic growth in the second quarter, with sales of $1.6 billion, but the company doesn't break out cereal sales. Rising commodity costs, strong competition and a decision to stop advertising sugary cereal to young children hurt Kraft's cereal business. The Northfield, Ill., company has recently reduced the sugar in some of the children's cereals, however.

Kraft Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld, who is trying to lift weak sales at the food giant, recently told investors that she will sell some brands but declined to say which. Before Kraft hired her last summer, Ms. Rosenfeld was chief executive of Frito-Lay, a PepsiCo division.

Activist investor Nelson Peltz, who has acquired a 3% stake in Kraft, has called on Ms. Rosenfeld to sell Post cereals, according to people familiar with the matter. Whether Kraft began shopping Post before or after Mr. Peltz entered the picture is unclear.

In a departure from other recent sales of consumer assets, few if any private-equity firms are expected to join the auction because the high-yield financing market they use to fund deals is all but shut. The credit squeeze has caused Cadbury Schweppes PLC, the British consumer-products company, to shelve the auction of its U.S. drinks business. That sale had been expected to fetch about $15 billion from a group of private-equity firms.

The interest from rival consumer companies that Post is expected to draw shows that even though the red-hot leveraged-buyout market has cooled with the plunge in the high-yield bond market, corporate acquirers still have an appetite. In fact, they may be more willing to vie for assets now that they aren't competing with buyout firms, which for years have been pushing up the price of deals.

Campbell to Sell Godiva

Campbell Soup Co., owner of the famous Godiva Chocolatier brand, is putting the company on the auction block, according to people familiar with the matter, as it focuses on its soup and baked-snacks businesses.

Campbell is expected to make the announcement today, saying that it will explore strategic alternatives for the Godiva unit, which generates annual sales of $500 million via its own retail outlets, department stores and Internet sales.

Since Campbell bought the business some 40 years ago, it has successfully managed to create a refined, European image for the chocolate maker. Godiva's Web site, for instance, doesn't even mention Campbell's ownership, instead focusing on the small Belgian chocolate shop where the company was founded more than 80 years ago. That well-managed brand name is likely to attract broad interest from potential buyers, who could include everyone from private-equity firms and Persian Gulf states investors to other large food conglomerates.

The people familiar with the transaction declined to estimate a price range for the company. But a look at comparable transactions in a database from CapitalIQ showed that confectionary companies have fetched between one and 1.86 times annual sales in the last three years. Given Godiva's strong brand name, that would suggest a price somewhere from $750 million to $1 billion or more.

Campbell is selling the company because it doesn't view the unit as fitting with its current business focus. Campbell has become increasingly focused on "wellness," with the introduction of low-sodium soups containing natural sea salt, Pepperidge Farm whole-grain bread and new antioxidant-rich fruit versions of its V8 vegetable juice. Other than Pepperidge Farm cookies, Godiva chocolates are the only "indulgence" products in Campbell's portfolio. Other products under the Pepperidge Farm brand fit with the company's overall "wellness" push, but Godiva doesn't.

Campbell Chief Executive Doug Conant in February told analysts gathered for a food-industry conference in Arizona that the company's U.S. soup business "will continue to be our key focus area." When an analyst asked whether that meant the company would consider selling any businesses, Mr. Conant said he was happy with the portfolio, Godiva included, but that the company is "heavily focused" on simple meals, which include soup, and baked snacks -- two product categories that constitute 85% to 90% of Campbell's sales, depending on the quarter.

The company's low-sodium soups have contributed to the recent turnaround of its core U.S. soup business, along with new varieties of broth and new supermarket soup-can dispensers that make it easier to shop the soup aisle. Campbell is now trying to expand into Russia and China with soups and broth designed for local tastes.

Campbell's net income rose 31% to $217 million on a sales gain of 8% to $1.9 billion in its third quarter ended April 29, driven by soups and V8 beverages. Campbell has hired Centerview Partners to handle the sale.

Hain Celestial to buy baby care product company

Boston Beer to acquire Diageo Brewery

Boston Beer Company, the maker of Samuel Adams beer, is buying a Pennsylvania brewery from Diageo North America Inc. for $55 million to add more than 1.6 million barrels of annual production.

The company decided to buy the brewery rather than build one because of rising copper and steel costs, higher prices for European equipment because of the lower value of the dollar, and other construction and production expenses, chief executive Martin Roper said.

Boston Beer, whose sales rose 17 percent in 2006, has been looking for ways to increase brewing capacity, and had considered expanding breweries it owns, building one, or buying existing locations. The company said it will back away from building a brewery in Freetown, Mass., where it bought an option on land last year.

"Comparing the projected construction costs of a new brewery against the price of buying and renovating the Pennsylvania brewery leads us to believe this is the better long-term strategic decision for the company," Roper said. "We are able to secure twice the brewing capacity for less than half the cost of building the Freetown brewery."

The company said it spent more than $4 million just to determine how much it would cost to build a brewery, and estimated construction costs at more than $200 million. Boston Beer will hold the rights to the Freetown property until the purchase of the Pennsylvania site is completed.