US food giant Chiquita Brands International yesterday announced a second-quarter profit of US$95m (€72.7m) on the back of an improved European performance and good sales in North America.
Part of that figure came from Chiquita's US$32m (€24.5m) sale in May of its ‘Fruit in a Bottle' brand to Danone, the group noted.
In the same quarter last year the firm recorded a profit of US$89m (€68m), and the profit was up this quarter in spite of a 3.8 per cent drop in sales for the period to US$916m (€701m).
'As we expected, we regained profitability in Europe during the second quarter following the unusual weakness of the first quarter,' said Fernando Aguirre, group chairman and chief executive officer. 'Revitalising Europe is our most important priority and we made solid progress executing a business improvement plan that includes improving pricing, capturing significant cost improvements and increasing distribution, as we leverage the strengths of our branded business. Meanwhile, we are reaping the rewards of having a diversified portfolio as our North American salad and banana businesses in the second quarter delivered the same profit level as last year, excluding our increased consumer marketing investment.
'We believe our diversification and profitable growth strategy will result in strong profitability for the full year. However, as we previously noted, a sustained, significant reduction in European exchange rates was not factored into our prior expectations,' Mr Aguirre added. 'We are now adjusting our full-year comparable income estimate to US$80m-US$90m, assuming these rates remain at lower levels than earlier this year. Even at the lower income estimate, 2010 will be one of our most profitable years in the last decade, despite the weak economic environment.'
Chiquita's stock closed yesterday at $13.21, up by US$0.04 and the company expects income for the calendar year to be between US$80 and US$90m.
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