NEWS ROUNDUP 1994-08-22 (3)

Americold, Wholesome Sign Pact

e & Hearty Foods and Americold, both here, have announced a logistics services agreement that will provide complete nationwide distribution services for the former's Gardenburger products.

"Americold will handle all of our traffic, all inventory management and service," said William Miller, executive vice president of Wholesome & Hearty Foods. "Americold will also provide product planning assistance and inventory deployment."

Wholesome & Hearty produces a number of low-fat vegetable-based products marketed as Gardenburgers. The company expects to sell 60 million Gardenburger products this year.

"This announcement signals the beginning of a new era in the frozen food business," said Ron Dykehouse, Americold chairman and chief executive officer. "It's the first all-encompassing logistics system from production point to consumer. We're providing a totally integrated solution for nationwide distribution of Wholesome & Hearty products."

Americold provides more than 240 million cubic feet of storage space and distribution logistics service for domestic and international markets.

Novelties Seen Hitting $3.7 Billion

NEW YORK -- Sales of frozen novelties are expected to inch up to $3.7 billion by 1998, demonstrating annual growth rates of less than 2%.

Those figures come from a report released by Find/SVP, a research firm based here.

Novelties made of frozen dessert have shown tremendous growth in recent years. However, total industry sales trends suggest consumers who purchase novelties are switching over to frozen yogurt. The report forecasts novelties' share of the frozen dessert market to decline from 31.7% in 1993 to 28.5% in 1998.

The report said that as the segment stands now, bars (with and without sticks) have traditionally been the most popular form of novelties and still account for more than 85% of all novelties sold. Sandwiches and cups follow bars, each with about 5% of the market. Cones and miniatures each have about a 2% share.