PEOPLE : Quaker Oats President Steps Down

Quaker Oats Co. President Philip A. Marineau, who oversaw the ill-fated acquisition of Snapple Beverage Corp., resigned Monday just one week shy of the deal’s first anniversary.

Analysts said Marineau, the No. 2 executive at Chicago-based Quaker, was an apparent casualty of Snapple’s poor performance. Neither Quaker nor Marineau immediately returned calls, and there was no word on Marineau’s plans.

Snapple sales, down 17% in the first half of this year, have fallen far short of expectations as consumers’ thirst for so-called New Age beverages has cooled.

“The performance of Snapple in the first year has been below expectations, and I guess Marineau has got to be viewed as the scapegoat,” said John McMillin, a food industry analyst at Prudential Securities Inc.

Marineau and Quaker Chairman William D. Smithburg touted Snapple last Nov. 2 as a pillar of Quaker’s restructuring into a “good-for-you foods” company. But after selling off its pet-food and other businesses to help pay for the $1.7-billion acquisition--a price widely criticized as too high--Quaker has been rumored to be a possible takeover target.

Smithburg will assume Marineau’s duties, according to Quaker’s one-page statement.

Marineau, 49, joined Quaker in 1972 and was promoted to president in January, 1993, after guiding the Gatorade brand to global dominance among sports drinks.

He was put in charge of Snapple, which quickly faced increased competition from Lipton’s bottled iced teas and Coca-Cola Co.’s Fruitopia fruit drinks. Lipton, a division of PepsiCo Inc., eclipsed Snapple as the biggest seller of bottled teas last year.

Stories of Snapple distribution problems appeared last spring. In late June, Quaker acknowledged that Snapple sales were below expectations.

Beverage industry analysts disagree on whether New Age drinks are an expired fad. Sales of bottled teas, waters, juices and sports drinks are expected to grow 12% this year to $5.36 billion, according to Beverage Marketing Corp., a consulting firm.

But the rate of growth has slowed dramatically for iced teas and fruit drinks and gone flat or declined for carbonated natural beverages and coffee drinks.

Quaker’s stock closed down $1.25 to $33.50 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.