Kraft 2nd-Quarter Profits Drop 26%

NORTHFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ Kraft Foods Inc. said Monday its second-quarter earnings fell 26 percent as commodity costs and marketing spending rose. <br/><br/>Quarterly earnings fell 26.5 percent to $698 million,

Monday, July 19th 2004, 9:19 am

By: News On 6

NORTHFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ Kraft Foods Inc. said Monday its second-quarter earnings fell 26 percent as commodity costs and marketing spending rose.

Quarterly earnings fell 26.5 percent to $698 million, or 41 cents per share, down from $949 million, or 55 cents per share, for the second quarter of 2003. The company said a restructuring plan announced in January also adversely effected earnings.

Revenues at the maker of Oreo cookies and Philadelphia cream cheese jumped 5 percent to $8.2 billion.

Meanwhile, the company said it lowered its 2004 earnings projections to between $1.55 per share and $1.62 per share.

For the six months, Kraft earnings fell 30 percent to $1.26 billion or 73 cents a share, from $1.80 billion or $1.04 per share, a year earlier. Revenues rose 5 percent $15.9 billion.