Frito-Lay closing in Michigan

While driving to Sandusky (OH) this morning I was listening to 760 am out of Detroit and heard that Frito-Lay was laying off workers in Allen Park, Michigan, and the announcer editorialized that this was to help stockholders and management.

I was munching on some regular corn Fritos ($.99 package) as I was driving. Actually, I guess I didn't know it was owned by PepsiCo. I can pass up cake and candy, but I love crunchy, salty snacks. The AP story reports

In a press release, PepsiCo said it had net income of $1.36 billion, or 79 cents a share, including a tax benefit of 13 cents a share, for the third quarter. Excluding items, the company earned 66 cents a share.

Wall Street expected PepsiCo to earn 65 cents a share for the third quarter of 2004. A year ago, the company earned $1.01 billion, or 58 cents a share. Revenue rose 6 percent to $7.26 billion from $6.83 billion last year.

Citing the net effect of the third-quarter tax benefit and a pretax charge of $160 million it plans to take for the plant closings, PepsiCo raised its 2004 earnings forecast guidance by 6 cents to at least $2.35 a share.

Jobs will be added elsewhere, but all total, the company employs about 45,000 workers.