Quaker Reshuffles Snapple Management

Another Quaker Oats executive is going the way of the Snapple Lady.

The Quaker Oats Co. announced Friday it is realigning management at its troubled Snapple division and that the company’s North American beverages division president, Donald Uzzi, had resigned.

Uzzi said he left voluntarily but that he did not have a job.

Analysts say it was more likely he was forced out, a casualty of Snapple’s disappointing sales. Three other Quaker executives have left in recent months amid slow sales for the tea-and-juice business.

Quaker bought Snapple, the so-called new-age beverage line, for $1.7 billion in late 1994. Sales dropped 9 percent last year but gained in the first quarter of 1996.