Local & State Headlines

ConAgra wants to win pack patrons

• ConAgra wants to make peanut butter again for Wal-Mart.

Staff & Wire Reports

SYLVESTER — ConAgra Foods Inc. will crank out Peter Pan again this month at the Sylvester plant where thousands of recalled jars will filled.

The Omaha-based company said it is reopening the plant after spending at least $15 million on renovations that include repairing the roof, installing new equipment and creating a design to better separate raw materials and the finished product.

ConAgra will be producing only Peter Pan Peanut Butter there and not Wal-Mart’s Great Value or other private label brands that had been made at the Sylvester plant, spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said.

“We hope to win back all our business with all our customers and that includes the work with did with Wal-Mart,” she said.

Peter Pan peanut butter made at another location will be on grocery store shelves this month, but the exact date it will return will depend the retailer and on grocery distribution channels, she said.

Childs refused to name the date of the reopening or the date, if any, of a community event to celebrate the plant’s reopening.

A worldwide peanut butter recall prompted by a Feb. 14 FDA advisory linking ConAgra peanut butter cost ConAgra $66 million before taxes during the fiscal year and hurt peanut butter sales, which still generated about $92 million in 2007 versus $147 million in 2006, according to the company’s latest earnings report.

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