THE cookie business continued to be a tough one to be in for Mrs

Fields Inc which made a loss of $1.3m in the six months to June.

Shareholders will again be starved of a dividend, as they were for the

whole of last year when the losses were $15.1m.

Sales actually improved for the world's largest producer and seller of

cookies to stand at $60.1m, but results were severely hit by a 69%

increased interest charge of $4.2m and losses on plant closures of

$1.1m.

The shares stayed at 19p yesterday in comparison with the 140p price

when they joined the USM in 1986.

One crumb of comfort is that chairman Randall Fields says the

traditionally stronger second half of the year has started well and the

board intends to resume dividends next June.