Campbell to Focus on Boosting Sales

Campbell Soup Co. said it would spend $300 million to boost flagging sales of its red-and-white-label soups, cutting earnings estimates for the next year and saying it would slash its dividend to pay for the plan.

The plan, which has been long expected, would include product-quality initiatives, advertising and innovation, the Camden, N.J., company said.

As a result, Campbell expects earnings for fiscal 2002, ending next July, to be $1.30 a share, rather than the $1.40 average estimate of analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial.

Campbell said it continues to expect earnings for fiscal 2001 to range from $1.58 to $1.62 a share, after costs associated with the purchase of some businesses from Unilever. Analysts had been expecting $1.53 to $1.63.

Campbell will reduce its annual dividend by 30%, to 63 cents a share. Shares of Campbell fell 75 cents to $27.01 on the New York Stock Exchange.