THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE

"Salad Days Are Over." So begins a typical 1993 research report on the packaged-food industry. Merger and acquisition mania gives way to a tough business environment and even tougher consumers who demand good value at the right price. Explosive growth enjoyed in the early 1980s seems like ancient history. Sears, Kodak, IBM, General Motors and others cut tens of thousands of jobs in order to improve profitability in a slow economy.

After a difficult and challenging year in fiscal 1992, Ralston Purina launches a number of business-building and cost-reducing initiatives that begin to bear fruit in fiscal 1993. Ralston initiates a new class of Ralston Purina Common Stock to reflect separately the baking business. On July 30, 1993, shareholders approve the plan, and Ralston-Continental Baking Group (CBG) Stock begins trading. Ralston-Ralston Purina Group (RPG) Stock reflects the performance of other Ralston Purina businesses.

On August 16, 1993, Ralston announces it is analyzing the possible separation of its cereal, baby-food and smaller grocery human-foods businesses into a freestanding company, which could be spun off tax-free to shareholders. The Company's Board approved the spin-off plan in September, which included Ralston's branded and private-label cereal business, Keystone and Breckenridge ski resorts, Bremner, Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation, and American Redemption Systems. Ralcorp Holdings begins business as an independent company on April 1, 1994. The Company's Grocery Products Group now becomes Ralston Purina Pet Products Group.

In 1995, the Company acquired Golden Cat Corporation (now Golden Products), a leading marketer of cat box filler in North America. The Company also sold its baking subsidiary, Continental Baking Company, to Interstate Bakeries Corporation of Kansas City, Mo.

For Ralston Purina, the 1990s marked an era of acquisitions and spinoffs as the Company aimed to remain successful in the midst of changing competitive environments.

Ralston spun off its cereal, baby foods, smaller grocery human food and resort businesses into a freestanding company named Ralcorp in 1994. The spinoff included Ralston's branded and private label cereal business, Bremner, Beech-Nut and Keystone Ski Resort. Continental Baking Company was sold the following year, and DuPont purchased Ralston's Protein Technologies International subsidiary in 1997. Purina left the international agricultural animal feeds business in 1998 with the spinoff of Agribrands International Inc. And, on June 10, 1999, Ralston announced its intention to spin off Eveready Battery Company.

But the decade wasn't all about divestiture. Ralston Purina grew with the 1995 acquisition of Golden Cat Corporation (now Golden Products), a leading marketer of cat box filler in North America; and the 1999 purchase of Canbrands, makers of the leading paper-based cat box filler in the United States and Canada — Yesterday's News ® brand.

Other acquisitions signaled Ralston's growing presence as a global pet foods organization. In 1997, the Company acquired Edward Baker Petfoods, one of the United Kingdom's leading manufacturer of extruded complete dry pet foods and a major supplier of branded and private label products to other countries in Northern Europe. In the century's final months, Ralston purchased Bonnie Pet Foods, an Australian dry pet food business.

Ralston showed its commitment to the canine genome mapping project in 1998 by establishing the Purina DNA Distribution Center, designed to provide scientists worldwide with genetic material that can be used for developing the canine marker map.

The new millennium was greeted with magnificent celebrations around the globe — from Washington, D.C. to Malaysia — on Dec. 31, 1999. The festivities spanned the world's nearly 200 countries and 24 time zones. South Pacific islanders sang Handel's ''Hallelujah'' chorus. Buddhist monks in Japan prayed for peace. A German choir performed in Israel. In Italy, Pope John Paul II gave thanks for humanity's triumphs.

Purina entered the 21st century with a singular focus. The April 1, 2000, spinoff of Energizer Inc., created what CEO Pat McGinnis called, "the essence of Ralston Purina." With the Company now consisting of the North American Pet Foods, Pet Products International and Golden Products business units, the spinoff enabled Ralston to focus exclusively on the opportunities and challenges of the global pet products business. And in the first fiscal year of this new era, Ralston Purina posted yet another year of growth.