Milling & Baking News - October 5, 2004 - 15

B U S I N E S S

Yet another hurricane disrupts
grain-based foods operations

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

through Pennsylvania, including 6
inches of rain in Pittsburgh.
That rain caused flooding that made
conducting regular business difficult
Continued from Page 1
impact to wholesale bakers. John Hill- for Mallet & Co., Inc., a bakery inthe last half of September sent creeks man, an executive vice-president of gredients supplier in Carnegie, Pa., a
and rivers out of their banks from Bay State Milling Co., said the com- Pittsburgh suburb.
Florida to New Jersey, flooding a pany's flour mill in Indiantown, Fla.,
A week after nine workers left the
number of grain-based foods busi- sustained minor damage when the company's plant in rescue boats as
nesses long after Jeanne and Ivan lost storm blew ashore with 120 mile-per- floodwaters swiftly rose, Mallet &
the bulk of their punch.
hour winds. Indiantown sits about Co. still had no working telephones
Jeanne, the latest of
or Internet capabilities,
four major hurricanes
said Robert Mallet, the
to hit Florida in the past
company's chief executwo months, left 2.5 miltive.
lion utility customers in
"We're operating our
the state without power
business cellularly," Mr.
at the height of its ramMallet said. "They are
page, including all three
unable to tell us when
of Interstate Bakeries
our phones will be reCorp.'s production fastored. Without cellular
cilities there.
communications, I don't
Mark Dirkes, a spokesknow what we would
man with Interstate,
have done."
said the company's bakMr. Mallet stressed,
eries in Jacksonville,
though, that the comOrlando and Miami all
pany's plant continued
had power restored by
operating and that Malthe middle of last week.
let continued shipping
Flooding in Roanoke, Va., shown above, forced the Sept. 28 evacuMost of the customers
products to customers,
ation of The Mennel Milling Co. flour mill there. "We are meeting all
served by those plants
including its core releascustomer shipments either by loading out from our storage or by
also experienced power
ing agents and icing sta'buying in' the flour (from other mills)," said Donald L. Mennel, presioutages, he added.
bilizers.
dent. "We hope to get back up and running as soon as possible."
Mr. Dirkes said none
"Our
factory
was
of the bakeries received
spared," he said. "Our
damage from Jeanne. The Orlando fa- 20 miles southeast of Stuart, where office was spared."
cility just completed roof repairs from Jeanne made landfall.
The Mennel Milling Co. flour mill
damage sustained during Charley, the
Mr. Hillman said the mill expected in Roanoke, Va., wasn't as fortunate
first of this season's four major hur- to receive power again by the middle after Jeanne's remnants dumped up to
ricanes.
of last week. In the meantime, Bay 12 inches of rain in parts of Virginia.
Flowers Foods, Inc., meanwhile, State shipped flour from its other
"We had about three feet of water
sustained power outages from Jeanne mills to customers to compensate for on the first floor of the mill and wareat some of its baked-foods warehouses the lost production at Indiantown.
house," said Donald L. Mennel, the
in Florida, said Mary Krier, a compaOutside of Florida, both Jeanne and company's president, noting that the
ny spokeswoman, but the company's Ivan made their presence felt far from plant evacuated its workers the afterbakeries in the state continued pro- where they first reached land.
noon of Sept. 28. "We are meeting all
duction during the storm.
First, Ivan's remnants dumped 5 customer shipments either by loading
Jeanne by no means limited its to 10 inches of rain from Alabama out from our storage or by 'buying in'

Hurricanes take toll on restaurant sales
DUBLIN, OHIO - The recent barrage of
hurricanes hitting the U.S. mainland have
taken a big bite out of sales at two leading
quick-serve restaurant chains.
Wendy's International, Inc. issued preliminary September sales results last week
indicating a decline of 1.4% on a comparable-site basis at its U.S. company-owned
Wendy's restaurants and a decline of 0.9%
to 1.4% at Wendy's franchised outlets.
Wendy's previously had indicated the
impact of three hurricanes - Charley,
Frances and Ivan - would crimp its thirdquarter sales and September sales.

16 / Milling & Baking News, October 5, 2004

"In addition to the lost store days,
heavier-than-normal rain in the aftermath
of the hurricanes - especially in the
Southeast and Northeast - has resulted
in inefficient store operations and reduced
customer traffic," the company said.
Wendy's said that Hurricane Jeanne, the
latest of the four major hurricanes hitting the
U.S. this year, affected weekend sales and
caused more than 400 "lost store" days.
Nonetheless, the chain maintained its
third-quarter earnings estimate at 59c to
60c per share.
Earlier in September, Panera Bread Co.

blamed Charley and Frances for reducing
sales at its 49 Florida outlets, which account for 7% of the chain's entire restaurant portfolio.
St. Louis-based Panera said the storms
trimmed the company's total U.S. samesite sales during the four-week period
ended Sept. 4 by one full percentage point
to a gain of 2.4%. The company added
that a lingering impact from Frances also
would hurt sales comparisons in the fourweek period ended Oct. 2.
That projection, of course, did not include any additional business disruptions
Panera has experienced from Ivan and
Jeanne. MBN

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Milling & Baking News - October 5, 2004

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