Employee Retirement Plans

12 Months Ended

Sep. 29, 2012

Employee Retirement Plans

Employee Retirement Plans

16.Employee Retirement Plans

Defined Contribution Plans

The Company has a defined contribution plan which meets the requirements of section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code.  All regular full-time U.S. employees of the Company who are at least eighteen years of age and work a minimum of 36 hours per week are eligible to participate in the plan.  The plan allows employees to defer a portion of their salary on a pre-tax basis and the Company contributes 50% of amounts contributed by employees up to 6% of their salary.  Company contributions to the plan were $4.4 million, $2.7 million, and $2.0 million, for fiscal years 2012, 2011, and 2010, respectively.

In conjunction with the Van Houtte acquisition, the Company also has several Canadian Group Registered Retirement Savings Plans (“GRRSP”) and a Deferred Profit Sharing Plan (“DPSP”).  Under these plans, employees can contribute a certain percentage of their salary and the Company can also make annual contributions to the plans.  Company contributions to the Canadian plans were $1.0 million and $0.8 million for fiscal years 2012 and 2011, respectively.

Defined Benefit Plans

The Company has a supplementary defined benefit retirement plan and a supplementary employee retirement plan (collectively the “Plans”) for certain management employees in CBU.  The cost of the Plans is calculated according to actuarial methods that encompass management’s best estimate regarding the future evolution of salary levels, the age of retirement of salaried employees and other actuarial factors.  These Plans are not funded and there are no plan assets.  Future benefits will be paid from the funds of the Company.

The projected benefit obligation was $1.1 million as of September 29, 2012, which is classified in other long-term liabilities.  The projected benefit obligation was $2.3 million as of September 24, 2011 of which $0.1 million is included in accrued liabilities, $1.5 million is classified in other long-term liabilities and $0.7 million is classified in current liabilities related to assets held for sale.  Net periodic pension (income) expense was $(0.1) million and $0.5 million for fiscal years 2012 and 2011, respectively.