EAGLE SNACKS TO CLOSE, SELL PLANTS

The closing of Eagle Snacks Inc., will have far-reaching effects, including the operation of Eagle I in Cape Girardeau.

Eagle Snacks, headquartered at St. Louis, was founded as a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch Co. Inc. in 1979, and was the No. 2 snack-food producer in the U.S.

Although annual revenues topped $350 million, the company was losing money, according to Anheuser-Busch, which announced Wednesday that it will get out of the snack business after a 16-year battle with industry giant Frito-Lay and that Eagle Snacks would disappear from store shelves.

Four of the company's five plants will be sold to Frito-Lay, which is owned by PepsiCo.

"The announcement came as a complete surprise to everybody in the industry," said Mike Edwards, executive vice president and one of the owners of Eagle I in Cape Girardeau. "With the shutdown of Eagle Snacks we'll have to shut down too."

Eagle I distributes Eagle Snacks over a wide territory from Missouri to Nashville, Tenn., and south to New Orleans, La.

"We had regional offices at Nashville and Memphis in Tennessee; Little Rock, Ark.; Jackson Miss.; and New Orleans," said Edwards, who was in St. Louis Wednesday for the announcement by Anheuser-Busch. "More than 100 employees will be affected."

Eagle I will continue to maintain distribution until March 15, said Edwards.

"We knew that Anheuser-Busch was trying to sell Eagle Snacks," said Edwards. "We felt that the company would be bought and continued as Eagle Snacks.

Anheuser-Busch executives were also confident that someone would buy Eagle.

John Jacob, an Eagle Snacks spokesman, told the group Wednesday that a number of investors had looked at Eagle Snacks. But the company was losing too much money.

Frito-Lay will purchase plants at Robertsonville, N.C.; Fayetteville, Tenn.; Visalia, Calif., and York, Pa. The more than 1,500 plant workers will receive first consideration for jobs when Frito-Lay takes over.

A total of 85 Eagle Snacks workers will lose their jobs at Eagle's headquarters in Clayton, and another 65 white-collar workers will lose jobs elsewhere.

"We'll exit the business in a professional manner here," said Edwards. "This was an unfortunate thing. We had a great team of people at Eagle I here."

Eagle I Inc. was founded here in 1991 by James Rust, representing Eagle Snacks as the regional distributor headquartered in Cape Girardeau. Rust's River Eagle Co. distributes Anheuser-Busch products.

Mike Edwards joined Eagle I in 1992.

The company acquired the Louisiana territory of New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette for its Eagle Snacks food products in 1993.

Eagle I's Missouri territory included seven counties and a portion of three additional counties ranging from Cape Girardeau County to most of Jefferson County in South St. Louis.