The Wall Street Journal-20080214-In Brief

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In Brief

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Sears Will Cut 4% of

Headquarters Staff

Sears Holdings Corp. announced it is cutting about 200 headquarters jobs as it tries to bring its overhead costs in line with falling sales. The 200 jobs, which are in support functions, represent about 4% of Sears' 5,000 headquarters employees, Sears said. The job cuts come as billionaire investor Edward Lampert looks for a way to turn around the company created when he engineered Kmart Holding Corp.'s purchase of Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 2005. Sears is the latest retailer to announce job cuts since a disappointing holiday season. Macy's, J.C. Penney and Home Depot all announced job cuts recently. The retailer notified employees of the pending cuts in a memo Tuesday from interim Chief Executive W. Bruce Johnson.

Hindustan Unilever's

Profit Increases 24%

Hindustan Unilever Ltd. said net profit grew 24% in the fourth quarter, primarily on strong growth in sales of personal-care products, soaps and detergents. India's largest consumer-goods maker by sales said net was 6.31 billion rupees ($159.4 million), up from 5.11 billion rupees a year earlier. Sales rose 17% to 36.87 billion rupees. "Volume growth contributed to about 8.5% of this growth, while the rest came from price increases," said Finance Director D. Sundaram. The company, which has a vast distribution network that brings products such as Lux soap and Lipton tea to India, has been facing sustained cost pressures from high vegetable and crude-oil prices. Its home and personal-care business grew 18%.

Coca-Cola Amatil's Profit

Beats Expectations

Australian drink company Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. exceeded analysts' expectations with a 17% increase in annual net profit, after it raised prices to offset higher aluminum, sugar and plastic-resin costs. Net profit in 2007 rose to 367.6 million Australian dollars (US$331.9 million) from A$313.6 million a year earlier. Profit excluding its South Korean operations, which have since been sold, increased 13% to A$366.3 million. Analysts had forecast a rise of about 11%. "The result has been driven by improved pricing and product mix, and a number of successful new product launches," Managing Director Terry Davis said. "We expect to be able to once again achieve good revenue and volume growth in 2008."