HL At a Glance for Dec. 4 - Dec. 12

Odwalla Inc., owned by The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO), has launched four new juices in the southeast and expanded its distribution agreement to additional major retail supermarkets and mass-market retailers, including Wal-Mart and Publix, according to a Dec. 5 announcement. Three of the four new juices are not organic; its new orange juice is organic.

Health Strategy Consulting, IMAGINutrition and NPIcenter have launched a new collaboration, dubbed Innovations in Health and Nutrition, that will give companies the opportunity to present intellectual and technology assets to a broader audience in order to facilitate transfer and licensing, they say.

Broomfield, Colo.-based organic food manufacturer The Original Organic Co. is now offering its organic and natural products online. Jason Sutton, co-founder, in a Nov. 29 announcement, notes that the company now has greater control over quality control and distribution.

In an effort to cut costs, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. says it will sell two non-tobacco businesses—Avoca, a business that extracts material from plants and sells that material to fragrance and dietary-supplement companies, and its packaging division—and take a $235-million charge in 4Q02. The cigarette maker will cut its work force by 8 percent, eliminating 635 full-time jobs (115 via attrition and 520 via lay offs), according to a Dec. 5 article in the Winston-Salem Journal via Hoovers Online. Avoca has fewer than 15 employees, says the Journal.