Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 37

ANG Newspapers ,) 2July 7, 2002 Drew Voros (925)416-4811 dvorasangnawspapanxom Hayward-based Shasta Cola climbing soda mountain one flavor at a time CDs get new look courtesy of National Beverage Corp A DISPUTE IS BREWING over this 1950s-srs Shasta Cola sd that reappeared Isst winter whan a windstorm tors the' panels off a San Francisco skyscraper. Shasta wants the ad prssarvad but the wall apses is leased to an outdoor advertiser that has sines covered tha historic ad with a Men in Black II" -ttiii i' 1 AMCCaABS Staff SHASTA SOOA HAS BEEN nudgm to tha martfns of the S62 bMon soft drink markat by top pops Pepsi and Coksovsr tha years. But Americans drank about 224 million cases of tha cantanarian soda pop brand last year. By BU6INES6 WRITER HAYWARD HERE ARE a few ways to tell whether a soda pop company has gone flat For Instance, die trade publication Beverage Digest measures market share. And at Joe Franco's PW Market In Castro Valley soda pop experts are never far behind their moms shopping carts.

Here, In the back yard of per-' ennlal pop producer Shasta, Geoffrey Seto and Heather Bollinger both Canyon Middle 1 School students had unenthu-slastlc praise for the hometown brand. Seto, 10, said he had Just had Shasta'a lemon-lime soda that afternoon. Yea, he said, giving Shasta a good amount of thought. It's -good. i Bollinger, too, said Yea," she bad tried Shasta once or twice Tfs pretty gbod, she said.

d. But in the highly competitive soft drink market where Coke and Pepsi rule, pretty good doesn't count for much. With 2J2 parent of the $62 billion soft drink market, Shasta Is thebottomof the soda pop Cott Corp. which makes soft drinks for store brands sold more pop than Shasta did last year. The soda world today belongs to Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and jto leaser degee, CadbuiySchwepps, maker of 7 UP and Dr.

Pepper. Coipbined, these top pop companies command more than OO percent of U.S.' soft drink sales. But Shasta which started as ML Shasta Mineral Springs Co. in 1889 as a bottler of bubbly water -It claimed sprang from the foot of WENTY YEARS ago banka created the money market deposit account, which aa the name was designed to fend off the rising at-, traction of money market mutual funds. Money funds, as they are popularly called, though then only eight years In existence, were drawing hordes of depo ltors out of banks with In- terest rates that bank customers could only dream While money funds have drawn some $2.27 trillion In -assets, some shareholders are starting to look back at banks because money market de- posit accounts are paying about 3 percent, while money funds are running about 1.7 percent, thanks (or no thanks) toan historic plunge In In- terest rates.

oney mar ket deposit ac- counts generally require hlghff minimum than rnmuy funds, but at this stage that Is the only tangible advantage to a money fund. But an Intangible advantage that I like to dte Is that bank rates are set by humans, who react as they wish, while money fund rates are automatically set by market Another InlMiglW that out i Innovative Investors rather than sedentary savers. Of course, bank savers love die Federal Deposit Insurance which places a govern- )QQ)tabBCkfid gimratifiMi qq bank derosita under doesn't tfitnk HmI! fnmigh anil hi voted to hike the coverage to $130,000 for regular accounts and $280,000 for retirement accounts. The higher levels are i under consideration by the Senate at this writing. The hikes are not Justified, jbut with the stock market in jibe condition il ls today my are bound to fall on deaf ears.

Alan Greenspan, chairman of die Federal Re-! serve, at least tried to dls- suade the House by noting that the higher coverage will reduce the incentive for market discipline without pro-. vldlng any evident public hene- ids. Anyway, readers want to know how they can shop for rates on money market cte- posit accounts and bank cer- ttflcates of depostt. At least they are willing to shop. Twenty years ago they plunked thdr money In the nearest hank.

Mount Shasta Is holding Its Of the 16 billion cases of soda pop Americans drank last year (enoughto fill about 50 Lake Cha-bots), about 224 cases carried the Shasta labd. National Beverage which purchased Shasta In 1985, ported sales of about $480 million last year.an Increase of about $54 million from the previous year. And annual sales bave increased moderatelybut steadily over the past several years. annual sales figures, though, indude safes of all Na- banal Beverage brands, including Its Everfresh Jutee, La Crotx spar-. water and Faygo soft drink The Ft Lauderdale based company doesn't release inter-brand data, and wouldn't comment directly on Shasta safes.

other Hum to i nature product) National Beverage was formed In 1985 by a group of Investors, beaded by cable and tefecommu- nlwtlnwi iwigjwnffftt ftipmp A Sims, now MasTec, to purchase Shasta from Sara Lee formerly Consolidated Foods which bought Shasta In 1960. When National Beverage ac- -quired Shasta in 1985, It was the seventh largest U.S. soft drink company, with annual safea of more than $300 million In 1984, according to earfy media reports. Its rank has since Increased to No, 5, largely because the soft drink industry consolidated, said Beverage Digest PubUaher John Sicker. (Cadbury Schwepps, for cola tn late-2000.) See BUSINESS? Long lost Shasta Cola ad stirs controversy? HAYWARD WHILE THE COLA WARS rage, -Shasta brand soda pop la engaged In a battle of a different At stake Is a hand-painted Shasta Cola ad depicting Mount Shaata.

The 100-foot mural appeared last winter when a windstorm tore the siding from a stretch of skyscraper fo San nrandsco's South of Market district revealing the 1950s-era ad that had been covered since 1983. Shasta wants the ad preserved as a focal treasure and has launched a public rriaHnmt campaign tn iWwmtw painted the red-andwhite Shasta can, offering a $10,000 reward to the person who could name the artist But ftie buildings owner and the city think ft's a beautiful sign, said An- i-l A xAfc- Qrcw Moeran, prcsKictii oi aimod racnic nroperties, which owns the David Hewes office budding. He'd like to see the ad preserved In concept, he said. But tfs a weird, complicated Issue. He has leased the wall space to seeColBUSMESS-2 Bay Ana pop praduean.

hmalar baabina call law to a tough bloiK(nw puriv-: ttwawdarn standard for aluminum caoarincathamid-INOaJ MR Nmala to Sm tint nadonaRy diatribulad brand of soda'pop to complalily raptoca radnad sugar wbh Mgb-fructoaa com ayup, Wfe Sbaala InlSatoa a ahort-Wad attampt to sal -its soda in China. juiea drink sold undarfiemiaa bam -company Rudolf WILD Bnibb A Co. Kraft foode aubaidimv at PMCp Morris Cot, tim rights to Capri Sun in INI. iBMiMiiBiMnfil mihninfl 1Un fruckcn mgm suss sNNiNssNfti puu aiwwRru fimNnaliiflii finnhienftodffitiMMiif avg i nsnp nis ursnimrs sa tvya tor ks 31 flavors of aoda pop. Ibirnilumrogootokliocguitadby.

CaforSBrnNoa Ita ast i at IB mpSIwC MllUinMlN Punch to its Ins af 44 flavors. Soma memorable moments along the Shasta soda pop trail SHASTA REINTIIODtlCED ITS 1H Punch flavor last year. Pictured hors an tin flavor's original can (right) and tiw turbo version. Also' visaMa is a Shasta Root Beer can from th 1950s. Reproductions I tftGovsn i hot spring Of MlUflHp CflfbOMl VMlBT MIT HfldQC CllSk tbs baas of Mount Stwata aid hsipi Marts hssMi pa stflic toesdoa Owners Mart ML Starts I Springs Co.

to boQto ond oil Hit popolor raaVwWaatCoaaL la Sm tint naiaral walar eanpany la i trips, oranga, strswbsny la Ms ll chanaa ks aaaw la 8baala WrtarCo. oda pop, which tistributos nationaSy. Ibssto tint to paefcaga Ra soft drinks in NR Mtotos la ssgslmd by Sara Laa Corp; tonnsriy CooSdstid Focdc Cwy. lor SMtOCS iBavaragabie. tbabaadquartarabaaiSpa Naaaaaaf7UPfar i Up Company during a flva- $30 a weak $193,746.73 money $2 a day $84,58234 19 percent at Americans don't auythiqgat'alL.

35 percent of Americans are i isiled with their ability to 'tf you have trouble saving money, you're not alone. Tfs a universal problem, across race and gender, said Derek Dhge, an ad-to the GE Center for Financial in Barron's ($3.50 cm did tngi Deposit melds. It carries quotes on five money market deposit accounts and four CDs of varying maturities. These are often obscure banks and savings and loans located across die country, with toll-, free numbers provided. But all are covered by FDIC.

Some of thdr ndnlniiun deposits run i as $10,000 to I hate to even hint that CDs are a good buy when there are so many other (yes, riskier) tn-. yielcfing higher. But anyone buying a Q3 now should go for the shortest ma-turlty because Interest rates are ur more likely to rise than drop further. Too many Q) buyers don't shop, don't mow where we are on the interest rate cycle, don't look at any competing 'investments, and pump too touch money Into CDs. I say i about 5 percent of your portfolio.

Interest rates will eventually Cliff PletschetsPersonal Finance cotutm appears Sunday and Monday. Write MmatP.O. Box 28147, Oak-land, CA 94604, phone (510) 831-5620. or log onto our Web site, Tips to start saving Savings ovar Amount! SOyaars with inMativa aavad 8 kitavast dnacorrititw Bring lunch to work- $58 day- $1615U1 38 percent of. Americans don't know what percentage of Income they are saving, indicating that they have no savings plan to place.

53 percent of Americans say they cant afford to save more money, but 58 percent regularly eat at restaurants, 16 percent spoid mooey Impulsively and 13 percent choose to wend Instead of save because life la too short to save. Saving requires discipline. Dtngfe, who Is also vice president and executive editor of Blacft Enterprise nug- But don't give up hope. Dinge has developed 10 simple tips to save money and get on the pitih to financial freedom. The GE Center Is encouraging Americans Eat at hotna one more time a waak to try at least one savings tip i their financial Independence this Fourth Rant a movie instead of going to theater $15 a month $22355.39 Home manicure instead of a salon $20 a month $29307 9 of July week as put of Start Out I Week.

Saving regularly In nnall amounts can add up. Bringng ydur coflee or making it at work hiatead of buying It saws 81s day, or $3291.12 over 30 years with 8 percent Interest, Dtagfe said. But Americans have struggled to save money. The US. personal sawings.

rate declined this past decade to 1.6 percent from 8.7 percent according to the Bureau of Economic Anafysia. The GE Center for Financial 1 The key Is starting mall, he said. Enter the 10 tips ibr saving money: Bring calfee.or make It at work of biding lb save 81a day. Save all your change; use paper Souivu: GE Center for FinentM Luaming commissioned a survey of 1,000 U.S. households that detailed America's saw togs shortcomings.

The survey found the following: save BUSMESS-2.