Zhongpin announces preliminary '08 sales up 85.3 percent

Zhongpin Inc. announced preliminary unaudited sales for the fiscal year ended December 31 of almost US$540 million, an increase of approximately 85.3 percent from US$291.4 million in 2007.

 

This growth is attributable to increasing demand for the company's products, rapid capacity expansion and adding new geographic markets in 2008.

 

Revenue was slightly lower than the company's guidance of US$550 million to US$570 million due to lower-than-anticipated sales volume and selling prices during the fourth quarter of 2008, partly resulting from the impact of the global economic downturn on the Chinese economy.

 

The company expects its 2008 fiscal year gross margin and net margin to be in line with the company's previous guidance.

 

Zhongpin expects sales for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2009 to range between US$780 million to US$810 million.

 

The management anticipates strong revenue growth in 2009 from new markets and additional capacity from the company's new chilled and frozen pork and prepared meat facilities as they ramp up to target utilisation levels in the first half of 2009.

 

Meanwhile, gross margin for the full year 2009 is expected to be approximately 12 percent with net margin of at least 6 percent.

 

 

The processor expects fully-diluted earnings per share in the range of US$1.50 to US$1.63 per share, assuming a fully-diluted share count of 30.7 million shares outstanding. This guidance excludes the impact of any future acquisitions.