The incentives are expected to help reduce bloated inventories but will hurt the bottom line.

It blamed slowing orders from computer makers, which are working their way through bloated inventories of components.

Last year, many car companies offered huge rebates as they tried to clear bloated inventories to make room for new models.

Department and specialty stores, in particular, are already struggling with "bloated inventories" that have built during a sluggish fall, she said.

This is because sales last summer were stimulated by the sweeping incentive programs needed to clear bloated inventories.

Indicating all its problems are not past, the company said bottlers in several key markets would buy less concentrate this year to reduce bloated inventories.

It still lacks strong systems to control its bloated inventory.

Those companies and others slashed prices last month in an effort to clean up bloated inventories left over from weak holiday sales.

Besides the effect of the bloated inventory, Sunbeam was also hit by vastly higher interest expenses.

It turned out that some of those sales ended up in bloated inventories at retailers, and write-offs followed.