Pepsico

Oxford Borough residents will know tonight whether the elves are really coming to town. British-owned UB Foods U.S. has applied for $3 million in low-cost state loans to purchase Pepsico's Unibev plant in Oxford, a building that has not had a tenant for about three years. It would use the plant to produce a new line of Keebler snacks, according to a local official. Keebler promotes its products with TV commercials featuring snack-making elves. A spokesman for the company said the decision on proceeding with the planned purchase would be announced this evening at a special informational meeting in Oxford, a borough near the Maryland and Delaware lines.

Commodore International Ltd., fighting to regain momentum after a year of losses, yesterday named Thomas J. Rattigan chief executive officer, effective April 1. Rattigan, who had been president and chief operating officer, replaces Marshall F. Smith, 56, whose two-year tenure as chief executive included a major industry slump that has left Commodore and other personal-computer manufacturers in financial disarray. Smith will remain a member of Commodore's board and will be a consultant to the West Chester company, according to an announcement by chairman Irving Gould.

Two Fortune 500 companies are seriously interested in purchasing the Unibev building in Oxford, which has been without a tenant for two years. George Leitner, marketing manager of the Chester County Development Council, said at least 30 companies had looked at the building in the year since the last potential buyer, Sunsweet Growers of Yuba City, Calif., pulled out. At the time, Oxford Borough was unable to come through with the sewage- treatment capacity necessary for Sunsweet's bottling operation.

Wawa knows that man does not live by hoagies alone. Sometimes, man craves a breakfast burrito or pan pizza. Accordingly, the locally based convenience-store chain has hooked up with PepsiCo Inc., the junk-food giant, to sell Taco Bell and Pizza Hut fast food through several Wawa stores. A prototype "food court" opened yesterday at the Wawa at 1666 S. Delaware Ave., recently remodeled and expanded to include the new pizza and Mexican food-service counters. Signs for the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell concessions went up on the store's walls last week, and right away Judi Bernardi, the store's supervisor, knew Wawa was onto something big. "People were grabbing me in the parking lot: 'When are we gonna get the tacos?

CINCINNATI - Households reeling from gasoline now costing near $4 also face bigger bills for everything from changing their babies' diapers to wiping their noses to treating themselves to ice cream. Major makers of everyday consumer products and groceries say they have to raise prices to offset soaring costs for their fuel as well as the materials and ingredients that go into their products. Retailers are trying to pass that along at the cash register, adding pressure on a sluggish U.S. economic recovery.

A federal grand jury is investigating allegations that the Coca-Cola Co. bribed people in the Soviet Union to obtain permission to sell its cola products there, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution reported yesterday. The company was served with subpoenas within the last month by the jury in Atlanta, which requested all documents relating to the company's 1986 agreement with the Soviet Union, the newspaper said. A Coca-Cola official said yesterday that allegations of wrongdoing were "ridiculous.

Where would television be without General Motors and Procter & Gamble Co.? More than $2 billion poorer for one thing. According to this week's Advertising Age magazine, the two companies are the top spenders on TV advertising. They rank first and second respectively in spending on network TV - which gets the biggest bucks. In total spending in all advertising media, Procter & Gamble (maker of Tide, Folger's Coffee, Crest toothpaste, Pantene Hair Products and about 40 other products)

Who will succeed R. Gordon McGovern as chief executive of Campbell Soup Co.? That is a question everyone in the food industry is seeking to answer. For, when McGovern announced his intention to step down yesterday as head of one of the nation's biggest food companies, he created a vacancy that many top executives would love to fill. But the post may not be filled, according to Campbell officials, until next year. Robert J. Vlasic, Campbell's chairman, said last week that the task of selecting a new chief executive had been assigned to Spencer Stuart & Associates, a New York headhunting firm.

Philadelphia will be one of four cities where Coca-Cola Co. will test a new flavored sparkling-water drink aimed at consumers under 30. Besides Philadelphia, the new drink, Nordic Mist, initially will be distributed in New York, Boston and Pittsburgh. Coke said the clear, sweetened and caffeine-free drink would come in five flavors - black cherry, raspberry, peach, pineapple, and a kiwi-pineapple- guava combination. Radio, print and outdoor advertising for Nordic Mist will begin later this year, the Atlanta-based company said.

Sodas, sports drinks and other sugary beverages are an unhealthy choice for kids, according to the nation's leading pediatricians' group, which strictly opposes the sale and advertising of the products in schools. Yet Coca-Cola's Live Positively slogan and the soda-maker's familiar red-and-white logo pop up on the American Academy of Pediatrics' consumer education website, healthychildren.org, in a corporate sponsorship that some health experts denounce as a serious conflict of interest.