Quaker Oats Co

Quaker Oats Co. said Thursday that its profit more than doubled in the latest quarter despite a drop in sales due to lower prices for breakfast cereals and heavy spending on its struggling Snapple beverage line. Concerns over Snapple, which Quaker bought nearly two years ago for $1.7 billion, sent the company's stock down $1.75 to $34.625 on the New York Stock Exchange.

It crushes the competition on sidelines, finish lines and checkout lines. Its name is as synonymous with sports drinks as Kleenex is with tissues and Frisbee with flying discs. Long the thirst-quencher of choice for jocks and other heavy sweaters, Gatorade has become a powerhouse product in supermarkets and convenience stores. It has only one real rival. "The biggest enemy is tap water," pronounced Robert S. Morrison, chief of Gatorade's parent, Quaker Oats Co., during a recent interview.

Quaker Oats Co., whose earnings have been dragged down by its soon-to-be-shed Fisher-Price toy unit, said today that it will reorganize its businesses and lay off several hundred workers over the next year. The food processing company, whose brands include Quaker Oats, Life and Cap'n Crunch cereals, Aunt Jemima, Celeste frozen pizza, Gatorade, Rice-A-Roni, Ken-L Rations and Gaines-Burgers, also said it expects to report flat to slightly lower profits for its fiscal year ending June 30.

In its first earnings report since ridding itself of Snapple Beverages, Quaker Oats Co. on Thursday said its second-quarter profit rose nearly 18% on strong cereal and Gatorade sports-drink sales. For the three months ended June 30, Quaker Oats, the Chicago-based maker of Cap'N Crunch cereals, Rice-A-Roni and Aunt Jemima products, reported net income of $75 million, or 57 cents a share, compared with $63.6 million, or 47 cents a share, a year ago.

Quaker Oats Co. said it plans to discontinue corn milling operations at its Chattanooga, Tenn., foods division plant. It said ending the operations will affect 68 of its 140 employees and is scheduled for mid-February.

Union employees at Quaker Oats Co. ended a five-day strike against the cereal maker Monday by ratifying a new three-year contract that will provide workers with $1,500 in bonuses over the next six months. Members of Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 110 approved the new pact after a one-hour meeting, ending the first strike against Quaker Oats since 1951. Union leaders said the 850 members of the local will return to work today.