The Salt Lake Tribune from Salt Lake City, Utah • 15

Will CONSUMER CORNER B-2 UTAH BRIEFS B-2 BUSINESS GLANCE B-3 HDILBERT B-5 AUGUST 13 1999 Streamlining Effort Costs Vitamin Maker a Quarter in the Black Indicators BY STEVEN OBERBECK and GUY BOULTON Dow THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE industrials NYSE Baty said contract manufacturing has low margins and ties up needed production equipment And with the closing of the company's Southern California plant this past year Weider has less excess manufacturing capacity "They Weider are still in transition They will be in transition for a while" said Scott Van Winkle an analyst for Adams Harkness Hill Inc in Boston The shares of most nutritional-supplement companies are down two-thirds this year because of slowing demand and new competitors said Van Winkle He expects the industry to eventually regain favor among investors "In the short term we just have to wait and see" Van Winkle said For its fourth quarter ended May 31 Weider's revenues increased to $952 million compared to $738 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1998 Charges linked to its realignment efforts resulted in a loss of $55 million or 22 cents pei share Without $108 million in charges dur ing the fourth quarter the company would have posted net income of $11 million or 4 cents per share compared to net income of $58 million or 23 cents per share for the same period a year ago Weider's revenues increased to $3355 million for its 1999 fiscal year from $2505 million in 1998 Given effect to all 1999 fiscal year charges Weider reported a loss of $80 million or 35 cents per share 500 NASDAQ tried to support too many brands Weider plans to reduce the number of products and sizes it makes from 2000 to 700 The goal is to focus on the company's most successful brands Eric Weider the company's chairman said in a news release The company also expects to eliminate contract manufacturing during fiscal 2000 Contract manufacturing involves making and packaging vitamins and minerals for outside companies that sell the nutritional products under their own labels Weider Nutrition International Lie's revenue increased for the fourth quarter of its 1999 fiscal year But charges related to ongoing efforts to streamline operations resulted in a loss of $55 million for the period The company makes a broad range of vitamins minerals and nutritional supplements It employs about 475 people in at its Salt Lake City factory and headquarters During the past year however it has been reducing the number of individual products and sizes its sells Joseph Baty Weider's senior vice president of finance said the company Utah's Top Performers The Bloomberg Utah Index measures the stock performance of the state's Storm ers Riding Out the major publicly-held companies Outdoor Many displaced by twister finding new exhibit space Blue-chip stocks were held to a minuscule gain Thursday and broader indicators retreated A surge in interest rates following a disappointing Treasury auction deflated a bid to extend Wednesday's broad stock market rally Bonneville Pacific to Sell Oil Gas Subsidiaries 1 Bonneville Pacific Corp of Salt Lake City has struck a deal to sell its wholly-owned oil and gas subsidiary for $24 million to CEC Resources Ltd a Canadian company with offices in Colorado The subsidiary Bonneville Fuels Corp is headquartered in Denver The deal provides that if the transaction is completed the $24 million purchase price will be payable in cash at closing Bonneville Pacific expects the deal to close sometime during the fourth quarter of this year Bonneville Pacific was a highflying alternative energy company that wound up in Chapter 11 in late 1991 after it was revealed that most of the company's assets were based on a pyramid of sham paper transactions The company emerged from bankruptcy court protection late last year under new management Its affairs were reorgnized around a kernal of its remaining profitable operations including its Bonneville Fuels subsidiary Novell AOL Ink Pact BY GUY BOULTON THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The Outdoor Retailer Summer Market a gathering expected to draw 17000 people was a bit like a small city recovering from a natural disaster Thursday with some confusion and chaos but even more cooperation The tornado destroyed the two tents that held booths for more than a third of the companies exhibiting at the annual convention The disaster had the potential to cost some companies hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost sales And much of Thursday was spent scrambling to find exhibit space for those companies and recovering product samples in the destroyed tents "This year we were expecting a bang" said John Bovy of Crossover a maker of backpacks based in Anoka Minn The company which employs 75 people was sending samples by overnight delivery But earlier Thursday afternoon Crossover was waiting to be assigned exhibit space Bovy also was worried about the company's booth which cost $18000 "Hopefully it's still in one piece" he said Promoters of the outdoor show were optimistic that every company would find exhibit space That's no small feat 333 of the 881 exhibitors were in the two tenta Many of them were smaller companies that depend on the retail show to generate a good chunk of their sales By noon about 200 of the exhibitors had found space in other booths "The industry really came together to help everyone displaced by the tornado it's amazing" said Hugh Bollinger Ryan GalbraithThe Salt Lake Tribune Thursday was spent cleaning up and retrieving exhibit items from the tornado-damaged tents at the outdoor retail show principal of Pondaray Enterprises in Salt Lake City who was in the tent when the tornado struck The company sells note-cards posters and other products that feature outdoor photographs A bigger concern was recovering product samples from the tents "You are not going to do much business with just a couple of guys standing there" said Carson Stanwood a spokesman for the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini who gave briefings at noon and 2 pm at the convention said recovering products from the two tents was a top priority By 3:30 pm people were being allowed into one of the tents in small groups to retrieve products and other materials And Stanwood praised the city for its efforts to help the convention It all made for an outdoor show that few people would forget The convention the largest held in Salt Lake City draws more people than live in Tooele or for that matter more than half the counties in Utah They were expected to spend $18 million during the show Organizers did not know how many companies planned to withdraw from the retail show which now will start today and run through Sunday Most of those people seemed to accept the confusion and inconvenience that inevitably follows a natural disaster "It will all work out" said Tim Pfeil of See RETAILERS Page B-2 Whirlwind of Calls Took Out Phone Communications Business as Usual for Some Record-Setting for Others Novell Inc of Provo said it has agreed to integrate America Online Inc's Instant Messenger application into its Novell Directory Services product Directory Services is used to manage and control access to applications and other resources on business networks Instant Messenger allows users to communicate via instant messages that are faster than e-mail By partnering with Novell AOL is able to reach out to the small business and corporate market The agreement lets Novell enhance a product that has 80 million users "Integration of AOL Instant Messenger and Directory Services will bring business customers a new level of manageability and control for deployment of instant messaging within their organizations" said Eric Schmidt Novell's chief executive Refineries Regain Power BY STEVEN OBERBECK THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE The tornado that ripped a path of destruction through downtown Salt Lake City Wednesday failed to generate much additional buying of food-storage items or disaster supplies Stores that specialize in providing dehydrated food 72-hour survival kits and other items for emergency preparedness were reporting only a slight increase in business as a result of the killer whirlwind "Even with the tornado in Salt Lake City I guess people still seem to think that Y2K is the only disastrous event that can affect their lives" said Scott Ped-ersen of Emergency Essentials which BY VINCE HORIUCHI THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE At the Salt Lake City law firm Van Cott Bagley Cornwall and McCarthy the lights were out the phones were dead and no one could leave the building The tornado that roared through Salt Lake City on Wednesday afternoon was rushing by the downtown office and everyone inside felt trapped "I wanted to call my dad to let him know I was OK but I couldn't get through" said Kitty Higbee who is accounts payable supervisor with the law office "We would use our cell phones and they would be dead" The only way Higbee could get a has a store on State Street in Orem Closer to the disaster the manager of the Perma Pak store in Murray which sells dehydrated foods for long-term storage said there seemed to be a few more customers than normal For the most part though it was business as usual "I was surprised" store manager Eddie McCormack said "I expected to do a lot more business today Maybe people are just looking at this as a fluke something that will not happen again" Yet not everything was as dark for businesses as the funnel cloud that touched down In Salt Lake City See BUSINESS Page B-2 message to her family was to mail her son when the electricity and computers came back on "It was frustrating that we couldn't talk to the outside world" she said Higbee's desperate attempts were i common experience throughout much ol downtown after the tornado left a wake of destruction from 1000 West to 18th Ave nue Whether using a land-line phone oi a cell phone communication briefly was brought to a standstill And it was not because the funnel cloud damaged a lot of transmission lines or wrecked a cellular phone site it was because too many people were calling Sec WHIRLWIND Page B-5 Nasdaq Gives Utah-Based Fonix a Warning Bring your share price up or you're out market says Company continues to do business Speech-recognition software maker Fonix Corp has been warned its shares will be delisted from NASDAQ unless its performance improves Price per share BP Amoco Pic and Chevron Corp said their Salt Lake City refineries were operating normally Thursday the day after a tornado cut power for several hours Chevron's 45000-barrel-a-day refinery was operating normally after a two-hour power outage Wednesday a company spokesman said BP Amoco's 52000-barrel-a-day refinery also was operating normally after a similar outage Neither refinery was damaged by the storm or the tornado Geneva Appoints VP Geneva Steel of Vineyard has appointed Birchcl Brown senior vice president of operations Brown formerly senior vice president of steel and wire oieratlons at Northwestern Steel and Wire wiU direct the steel operations of the company with an emphasis on restoring profitability and improving customer service Geneva Steel Is a steel mill that supplies customers In the Western Central and Southeastern United States It filed Tor Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection In February $100 75C 50t 25 Fonix announced in May that it would sell the Articulate Systems unit which contributed 95 percent of its $11 million In first-quarter revenue Under the deal Brussels Belgium based Lcrnout Hausple agreed to pay more than $24 million for the unit which makes voice-recognition technology used In radiology clinics Trading of Fonix shares already was halted once this year Nasdaq halted their sale for a week In March until Fonix responded to unspecified questions the stock market hnd about some of the company's SEC filings current liabilities exceeded current assets by $139 million Despite the disclosures spokesman Paul Clay son on Thursday said Fonix continues to court prospective customers for Its technology and Is encouraged by its progress He said the notice Fonix received from Nasdaq on June 29 Is routine whenever a company's shore price falls below $1 "We're not under any kind of ominous warning" he snld In addition he said Fonix will be able to make the 55 million In debt payments once a donl to sell Its Articulate Systems unit to Lcrnout Hausple Is finalized "This (the debt Is not a dire event that will take the company down" Clayson said BY LISA CARRICABURU Tl IE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Financially troubled Fonix Corp has received notice that Its shares will not be allowed to trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market after Oct 1 unless their value exceeds $1 for 10 consecutive weeks prior to Sept 29 The Draper-based maker of speech recognition software also disclosed this week In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that It docs not have $65 million It must pay debtors If Nasdaq delists Its stock for three or more days The company whose shares closed ot 81 cents Thursday lost $7 million In the quarter ended March 31 according to the filings Its Juty 2 June June 4 18 30 Soutok Bloom twrf Btutnna Nw Bloombtrg News contributed to this report Rhonda Hallo Maytott Th Salt Ulw Tribune fj DPY.