Pickles: still their bread and butter.

• Position: Mount Olive Pickle Co., Charles F. Cates and Son

A peck of change has come to two neighboring North Carolina pickle companies, but don't think that's because business has gone sour.

Since BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA wrote about Mount Olive Pickle Co. and Charles E Cates & Son ["You Can Smell the Profits in Pickle Country," October 19871, one company has gained a new president, the other, a new parent.

Franklin Park, Ill.-based Dean Foods paid $30 million last October for the 92-year-old Cates. The purchase was, in a way, ironic. William L. Hennessee, who will stay on as president, spent the last two decades gobbling up seven other pickle companies, some from conglomerates that had bought into pickle packing nd then wanted back out.

Hennessee, 58, says the transition went smoothly None of Faison-based Cates' approximately 500 full-time workers, who produced 3.3 million cases (12 quarts to the case) of pickles last year, were laid off due to the acquisition. Hennessee says the company will keep a low profile and focus on institutional markets.

Dean Foods, best known for dairy products, shouldn't expect spectacular growth. "As long as we can't get people to eat pickles at...