Kraft profit falls 20 percent on dairy costs

Kraft Foods Inc. said Wednesday that soaring dairy prices weighed down its third quarter profit, which fell 20 percent from year-ago results that included a one-time gain.

Despite results that were also affected by investments in new products, Northfield-based Kraft, the nation's biggest food and beverage maker, posted better-than-expected revenue.

Executives said the costs to make its products are expected to climb nine percent this year.

Meanwhile, costs associated with making dairy products in North America -- including Kraft's popular namesake cheeses -- are up 40 percent in the third quarter.

"We're in a much tougher input environment than we had expected," said Kraft's Chairman and Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld.

For the quarter ending Sept. 30, net income fell to $596 million, or 38 cents per share, down from $748 million, or 45 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 10 percent to $9.05 billion from $8.24 billion in the third quarter of 2006.

Alcatel-Lucent

PARIS -- Alcatel-Lucent said it would cut a further 4,000 jobs by 2009 and trimmed full-year revenue growth expectations yet again after seeing fresh signs of a slowdown, particularly in North America.

The revised outlook and extra cost-cutting measures, which were largely expected, came as the French-American telecoms equipment group published a forecast-beating third-quarter adjusted operating profit on Wednesday.

"We are seeing fairly recently some further signs of softness with respect to spending, again predominantly in North America," Chief Executive Patricia Russo said.

Littelfuse

DES PLAINES -- Littelfuse Inc., a maker of circuit protection and electrical fuses, said Wednesday its third-quarter profit jumped 53 percent because of the sale of land in Ireland. Earnings rose to $14.3 million, or 64 cents per share, from $9.4 million, or 42 cents per share, for the same quarter in 2006.

Excluding a one-time gain on the sale of excess land in Ireland and restructuring charges related to plant shutdowns, the company posted an adjusted profit of 48 cents per share for the recent quarter. Revenue fell 2 percent to $140.2 million from $143.5 million in the year-ago period.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 43 cents per share on $136.9 million in revenue. Littelfuse attributed the drop in revenue to a 9 percent drop in electronics sales, which was partially offset by a 12 percent increase in automotive sales and a 15 percent jump in electrical sales.