5. EDSR 09-11-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Appendix E: Relevant News Articles (cont.) ~~ YIM NEAP;741 ~l./~1 ~~ Faribault Foods buys juice-pouch business Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal -May 20, 2605 py Nicole Garrison-Sprenger Staff wrifer Reid MacDonald knows his company can't survive in the food business without selling a wide array of products. That's why his firm, Minneapolis-based Faribault Foods Inc., just inked a deal to buy a $z3 million private-label juice business from SoftPac Industries Inc., based in Elk River. The SoftPac line makes and fills stand-up juice pouches, similar to Kraft's Capri Sun line, for grocery retailers and wholesalers, mass merchandisers and dollar store chains. MacDonald did not disclose the purchase price. Those products will augment Faribault's existing products, which include Chilli Man canned chili, Pasta Select canned pasta, Sun Vista canned beans, Butter Kernel canned vegetables and some store- brandlines, also known as private label. "It's part of our strategy to have more products ... so that [retailers] can get more from us as a supplier," said MacDonald, CEO of Faribault. "We can give [retailers] good products and good service and optimize transportation and distribution costs through mixing products in the same truckload or railcar." That's important as grocery retailers, trying their best to compete with the likes of Wal-Mart, find it more efficient to buy multiple products from large or mid-sized manufacturers than to do business with niche suppliers. "It's become increasingly difficult for very small consumer-products suppliers to get the attention of the shrinking pool of increasingly large retailers," said Jon Hauptman, vice president of Barrington, Ill.-based Willard Bishop Consulting. Founded in t99z as Advanced Nutritionals Corp., SoftPac operates a second division, in Foley, Minn., that it will keep. That division specializes inlarger-sized juice pouches, concentrates, sauces and marinades. Faribault's purchase of the fruit juice division, which is expected to close May 2'J, will give Faribault about 8o additional employees as well as a plant in Elk River that SoftPac built for about $t2 million in toot. Faribault has about Soo employees, most of whom work in Minnesota. The company reported fiscal-year zoos sales of about $t6o million.The purchase also gives Faribault packaging