Sara Lee workers lose sales duties

Chicago-based Sara Lee Corp. said Monday it relieved three employees of their sales duties for responding improperly and inaccurately to requests for information from a division of food distributor Royal

Ahold NV, which is embroiled in an accounting scandal.

A Sara Lee spokeswoman said the three suspended salespeople were part of the company's meats, bakery and household products divisions. The meats and bakery businesses are based in Blue Ash, but the spokeswoman said the company wasn't disclosing where the unnamed employees worked.

The employees were shifted to nonsales work within the company after an internal inquiry Sara Lee carried out in conjunction with a federal investigation into the Dutch supermarket giant's U.S. Foodservice division.

Sara Lee, a vendor of U.S. Foodservice, said the employees wrongly confirmed rebates and balances that were inconsistent with the amounts it provided in formal monthly reports to U.S. Foodservice and higher than what it owed.

Mail Boxes Etc. become UPS

Twenty-seven Greater Cincinnati Mail Boxes Etc. stores are now UPS stores as a result of a rebranding and service initiative launched Monday.

UPS acquired the Mail Box franchise in 2001.

The rebranding of 3,000 Mail Box stores nationally is to be completed by September. UPS Stores will still have the same products to sell - tape and boxes, as well as the ability to ship customer packages FedEx.

Wendy's sales down 3 percent

Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's International Inc. Monday said sales at company-owned locations open at least a year dropped 3 percent in March, compared with a rise of 3.6 percent a year ago.

But the nation's third-largest hamburger chain reiterated its 2003 profit forecast. Wendy's expects earnings to rise 7 percent to 10 percent to $2.02 to $2.08 a share this year.

- Staff/wire reports