Spice

A focus on value-added products helped propel McCormick & Co. Inc. to record third-quarter profit, sales and earnings per share, the Sparks-based spice producer said yesterday, although its share price remains a major disappointment to company executives. Net income for the three months that ended Aug. 31 rose 23 percent over the comparable quarter last year to $31 million on sales of $496 million, which was a 4 percent increase. Earnings per share beat analysts' estimates by 2 cents, coming in at 45 cents - a 15 percent increase, excluding special charges, over the third quarter last year.

McCormick & Co. Inc., which reported record earnings last year as it sought to stretch the boundaries of a traditional spice company, posted another record for quarterly earnings yesterday as strong sales, recent acquisitions and a $9 million lawsuit settlement helped lift profit. Fiscal second-quarter net income climbed 7.2 percent to $42.9 million, or 30 cents per share, compared with $40 million, or 28 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2003. Sales increased 13 percent to $596 million for the quarter, which ended May 31. The results beat average analyst estimates by a penny per share, but the Sparks-based spice and flavorings maker left unchanged its full-year earnings forecast of $1.51 to $1.54 per share.

William Ferdinand Eberhart Jr., a retired McCormick spice official and city neighborhoods activist who championed urban stream valley parks, died of cancer Tuesday at his Tuscany-Canterbury home. He was 72. Born and raised in West Baltimore's Franklintown neighborhood on Crescent Street, Mr. Eberhart was a 1956 Polytechnic Institute graduate and earned an English degree at Lehigh University. He joined the Army and was trained in Russian at its language school in Monterey, Calif. He was assigned to Bonn, Germany, during the Cold War and retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves.

The boys know every dip and twist of this route. Their mother, who is blind in one eye, knows it even better. "C'mon, Mom, you're driving so slow," says Ben. "I could drive this in my sleep!" But Martha Spice just keeps singing with the radio and lightly pulsing the accelerator. "Look, Ben," she says, "there's a hawk on that telephone line." She tells them about the day she recovered a lost goat on this road, then points to a line of geese disappearing on the horizon. The boys don't notice how easily she diverts them from her dallying.

The goddess of turmeric brings color in life. It is the ornament of married woman. And any woman who puts turmeric in her purse, Her purse will never be empty. An old Indian folk song praises turmeric, the golden spice from the East, for its power to bring beauty, good health and good luck to those who use and carry it. But in Indian medical lore, the pungent, woody-tasting powder is more precious still. Modern medicine is starting to sit up and pay attention. Scientists are taking a closer look at this Asian wonder spice, teasing out active ingredients and testing its age-old cultural and medicinal uses in 21st-century laboratories.

Editor's note: Over the next few days, the Today section will follow up on some of the people and issues that made news in the Baltimore area in 1998.These days, Loren Spice is a little thinner but a lot wiser -- if that's possible.It's been several months since 17-year-old Loren was perched on a kitchen stool, gobbling homemade gingersnaps in his parents' Madonna kitchen, trading funny jibes with his younger brothers and saying goodbye to neighbors, relatives and friends in the heat of summer.

Sixteen months after Gov. Parris N. Glendening threw down a $20 million gauntlet in a battle to keep McCormick & Co. Inc. from moving 100 jobs to Pennsylvania, a giant distribution plant in Harford County is up and running.The state's incentive package -- consisting of a $1 million grant, a $4 million interest-free loan and a $15 million taxable bond issue -- has so far resulted in little more than moving McCormick jobs about 30 miles from Hunt Valley.Fewer than 10 of the $21 million plant's roughly 110 jobs are new.After a ceremony celebrating the plant's opening, state economic development officials yesterday said they expect the plant to expand and eventually add 75 new jobs.

McCormick & Co. Inc. will cut an unspecified number of jobs across its global spice operation, consolidate manufacturing facilities, revamp its struggling industrial business and cut administrative costs as part of a plan to rebound from a disappointing year. The world's largest spice maker is expected to take charges of $130 million to $150 million against earnings, with about 60 percent coming from severance and other personnel costs. The cuts will be phased over three years and are expected to save $50 million annually beginning in 2008.

Spice. As a child, I thought that's what cinnamon was. And not just a spice, but spice itself. The exotic culinary treasure that drove conquests, expeditions and even wars. Spice! With my very first bite of cinnamon toast, a visceral, almost overpowering taste -- that ancient, dark, nutty tang -- swept me into fantasy.It was so different from any other flavor I'd experienced that I couldn't imagine another food even belonging in the same category. When my mother was brave enough to finally let me make my own breakfast, I shook the mahogany-brown powder so thick on the bread that the butter couldn't absorb it all. A melty pool of sensuality.

McCormick & Co.'s product line has long included staple spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg that have been around for centuries, but it might be the new blends - and different takes on the old ones - that are helping drive growth during this recession. As consumers pinch pennies by cooking at home more, many still want the same kinds of meals they can get in a restaurant; they also are health-conscious. That means foods seasoned beyond the basic salt and pepper. "We are bringing innovative new products to consumers that respond to certain realities driving purchasing decisions," Alan Wilson, McCormick's chairman and chief executive, said at the company's annual meeting Wednesday.