Need to Buy Crisco?

Two of the country's best-known supermarket brands – Crisco Oil and Jif Peanut Butter – are up for sale. Procter & Gamble (Cincinnati), trying to recover from a year-long sales and earnings spiral, has been pruning what it calls its “non-strategic brands.”

P&G said it would consider swapping Jif and Crisco for other brands; rolling them into a joint venture, similar to its deal earlier this year with Coca-Cola; or keeping the brands if no acceptable offers are received.

Although P&G does not release sales figures on individual products, Crisco is believed to be the Number One shortening and cooking oil brand in the U.S., and Jif the best-selling peanut butter. But both have reportedly been experiencing sluggish growth in recent years. Overall, sales for P&G's food and beverage business have fallen 12 percent in the first six months of fiscal 2001, a drag on the company's earnings.

President and ceo Alan Lafley has been on a mission to trim lagging brands since he was hired in June 2000, in the midst of the company's worst slide in years. But the company says it remains committed to its biggest food and beverage brands, such as Folgers coffee, and likely Tide detergent and Pampers diapers. It has also said it will concentrate efforts on the Pringles snack products and juice brands involved in the new Coke venture.

While the move is fairly dramatic, given P&G's year of troubles, the company has a history of selling brands that do not show potential for substantial sales growth. In recent years, it has dropped Oxydol detergent and Clearasil skin-care products.