ConAgra Foods Realigns Organizational Structure to Simplify Business Processes, Increase Accountability

"The changes improve accountability and reduce complexity in ourmanagement structure," said Gary Rodkin, ConAgra Foods president andchief executive officer. "Aligning our managers directly with our keypriorities will result in better execution and effectiveness."

Business Organizations

Among the key organizational changes is a realignment of ConAgraFoods from three operating channels to two, with the previous ConAgraFoodservice being merged with ConAgra Food Ingredients to form ConAgraFoods Commercial. This new organization will be led by Greg Heckman,formerly president, ConAgra Food Ingredients.

"There are compelling advantages to combining these operations. Itallows us to leverage the strengths of each business, whilesimplifying our structure," said Rodkin.

The Retail business going forward will be led by Dean Hollis,previously executive vice president of Retail. The sales organization,which previously reported into the head of Retail, will be led by DougKnudsen and will report directly to CEO Gary Rodkin, as will a chiefmarketing officer (CMO) to be announced later. With the selection of abest-in-class brand builder as CMO, Rodkin looks to energize ConAgraFoods' marketing for high-priority brands, and drive both growth andinnovation.

"Marketing and sales are at the heart of our business. I wantdirect oversight of these functions to make sure we maximize ourimpact with both customers and consumers. Improving execution in salesand marketing is essential to our success," said Rodkin.

Corporate and Shared Services Organizations

"Just as changes are being made in our business operations, we arerealigning some of our corporate and shared services units to bettersupport the business, as well as to drive accountability,simplification and collaboration. By centralizing functional areas, wefree up the business units to focus on execution and improvingperformance," said Rodkin.

"Essential to this approach is defining functional excellence anddeveloping best practices in the functions to be implemented quicklyacross the enterprise," he said.

Among the more significant changes in this regard is therealignment of all supply chain organizations under Jim Hardy,previously senior vice president, Manufacturing, who is promoted toexecutive vice president, Manufacturing and Supply Chain. He will haveresponsibility for manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, purchasingand customer service.

"This will allow us to reduce handoffs and drive productivity,thereby improving efficiency and effectiveness across the entiresupply chain," said Rodkin.

Additionally information technology and responsibility for thecompany's SAP-designed business process transformation project, called"Project Nucleus," will be realigned into the Finance organizationunder Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer FrankSklarsky.

"Project Nucleus is fundamentally about giving us quick, reliableaccess to financial and business information and to some cutting edgeanalytical tools and business processes. Nucleus is a high priority,"said Rodkin.

Other functional disciplines from human resources to research anddevelopment will be more centralized as well to ensure greatercollaboration, coordination and communication throughout the business,and to more quickly establish best practices in these essentialdisciplines.

Positions reporting into ConAgra Foods CEO Gary Rodkin goingforward include:

-- Dean Hollis, president and chief operating officer, ConAgra Foods Retail

-- Greg Heckman, president and chief operating officer, ConAgra Foods Commercial

-- Doug Knudsen, president, ConAgra Foods Sales

-- Dr. Patricia Verduin, senior vice president, Product Quality & Development

-- Jim Hardy, executive vice president, Manufacturing and Supply Chain

-- Frank Sklarsky, executive vice president and chief financial officer

-- Rob Sharpe, executive vice president, Legal and External Affairs

-- Owen Johnson, executive vice president and chief administrative officer

A chief marketing officer is in the process of being recruited andwill report into Rodkin as well.

"This is an important step in the evolution of our plans toimprove the company's operation and performance," said Gary Rodkin."This will help us take a step toward a new model for sustainableprofitable growth. The payoff will be quicker, smarter decisionsdriven by simplicity, accountability and collaboration."

ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE:CAG) is one of North America's largestpackaged food companies, serving consumer grocery retailers, as wellas restaurants and other foodservice establishments. Popular ConAgraFoods consumer brands include: ACT II, Armour, Banquet, Blue Bonnet,Butterball, Chef Boyardee, Cook's, Crunch 'n Munch, DAVID, Eckrich,Egg Beaters, Fleischmann's, Golden Cuisine, Gulden's, Healthy Choice,Hebrew National, Hunt's, Kid Cuisine, Knott's Berry Farm, La Choy,Lamb Weston, Libby's, Lightlife, Lunch Makers, MaMa Rosa's, Manwich,Marie Callender's, Orville Redenbacher's, PAM, Parkay, Pemmican, PeterPan, Reddi-wip, Rosarita, Ro*Tel, Slim Jim, Snack Pack, Swiss Miss,Ultragrain, Van Camp's, Wesson, Wolf, and many others. For moreinformation, please visit us at www.conagrafoods.com.

Note on Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains forward-looking statements within themeaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Thesestatements are based on management's current views and assumptions offuture events and financial performance and are subject to uncertaintyand changes in circumstances. Readers of this release shouldunderstand that these statements are not guarantees of performance orresults. Many factors could affect the company's actual financialresults and cause them to vary materially from the expectationscontained in the forward-looking statements. These factors include,among other things, future economic circumstances, industryconditions, company performance and financial results, availabilityand prices of raw materials, product pricing, competitive environmentand related market conditions, operating efficiencies, access tocapital, actions of governments and regulatory factors affecting thecompany's businesses and other risks described in the company'sreports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The companycautions readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-lookingstatements included in this release, which speak only as of the datemade.