Our decision to increase marketing support behind  Jif and  Crisco by nearly 50 percent over the  prior year paid significant dividends. Both brands exceeded their sales and profit projections and are well positioned for fiscal 2004. In the coming year, we intend to increase  Jif  and  Crisco marketing support by another 25 percent to continue to enhance the brands’ leadership positions.  Momentum across our entire business has never been greater. Following are further details of last year’s accomplishments and our plans for the future.  U.S. Retail, our largest segment, had an outstanding year, with total sales up 175 percent. This  segment includes the sales of  Smucker’s, Jif, and  Crisco products to grocery, club, drug, mass market, and warehouse channels. Of course, a significant portion of the segment’s growth resulted from the addition of  Jif  and  Crisco to our existing business. But even without these brands, segment sales were up four percent.  One of our objectives for the year was to leverage the combined strength of the  Smucker’s, Jif, and Crisco brands. All three brands are sold to our existing customers and similar consumers. And all are American icon brands—names consumers associate with homemade goodness. We think we have made excellent headway, and we expect to see greater benefits in the coming year and beyond. Smucker’s The  Smucker’s brand grew by five percent through our leadership in fruit spreads, toppings, and natural peanut butter, as well as through growth in the distribution and sales of  Uncrustables. Smucker’s continues to lead the fruit spread category, with a record market share of 41 percent.  Providing options in terms of flavors, varieties, sizes, and packaging is a  Smucker’s tradition  that contributes to our growth. Consumers welcome the choices we offer, as evidenced by the success in fiscal 2003 of our newly introduced  Smucker’s Squeeze fruit spreads in convenient plastic bottle packaging. We continue to focus on developing new segments of the fruit spread category and are especially excited about the growth of our  Sugar Free products.  Our range of ice cream toppings continues to lead the market, with a 61 percent share of the category. The launch of  Twix Magic Shell and Milky Way toppings this past year — a result of our continuing relationship with Masterfoods, USA, a division of Mars, Inc. — helped strengthen our leadership position in this category. We remain extremely excited about our  Uncrustables product. Based on very promising test market results from the previous year, in 2003 we rolled out our peanut butter and jelly  Uncrustables sandwich “I have been using  Jif all of my life. My mother would TRY to switch peanut butter on me and my siblings, but we could always tell when it was not  Jif …and we wouldn’t eat it! She finally only purchased  Jif peanut butter. Now that I do my own grocery shopping, I of course, only purchase  Jif. It is a wonderful product, and I want to commend you on its superior taste.” U.S. Retail Segment Comments From Our Consumers 2