ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, March 28, 1997                 TAG: 9703280070
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-6  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

QUAKER DUMPING SNAPPLE SELLING ALBATROSS AT A HUGE LOSS

Only weeks ago, Quaker was boasting it was ``putting the snap back in Snapple.''

Quaker Oats Co. is giving up on its profit-draining Snapple beverage business, selling the line of fruit and tea drinks at a stunning $1.4 billion loss to another maker of ``New-Age'' beverages.

Triarc Cos. Inc., which is making the $300 million purchase, will find out whether Snapple sinks or swims as it combines the drinks with its Mistic Brands beverages.

``With annual sales of approximately $550 million, Snapple continues to be a leading alternative beverage brand with the ability to generate growth,'' Quaker chairman William D. Smithburg said Thursday in a statement announcing the sale.

Snapple has been an albatross around Quaker Oats' neck from the time it bought it in late 1994 for $1.7 billion, a figure widely considered too high.

Only weeks ago, Quaker was boasting it was ``putting the snap back in Snapple'' with new bottling efforts and a new emphasis on the diet drinks segment, but analysts have said the Chicago-based company's attempts to revive the line were doomed from the start.

``Certainly, Snapple has not performed up to Quaker's expectations,'' said analyst Michael Branca at Lehman Brothers. ``The key thing here is that Snapple now has the opportunity to be reborn under Triarc.''

Triarc, with nearly $1 billion in annual revenue, has widely diverse interests including its Royal Crown Co. and Mistic Brands Inc. beverages, Arby's restaurants, National Propane liquefied petroleum gas and C.H. Patrick specialty dyes and chemicals businesses.

The sale should help Quaker return to its core - cereals and Gatorade. That boosted Quaker Oats stock 25 cents to close at $37.75 a share on a declining New York Stock Exchange. Shares in New York-based Triarc rose $1.62 1/2, or 10 percent, to $17.37 1/2 a share on the Big Board.

Triarc said the addition of Snapple to its Mistic Brands line would transform the company into a leader in the premium beverage business.

It said it expects to complete the purchase in the second quarter of this year, pending a federal antitrust review.

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