May 1, 2013

In its first quarter 2013 results, Mexican poultry producer, Industrias Bachoco has reported a 7% net sales increase.

"Based on those facts, Bachoco reported satisfactory results, with total sales up 7.0%, with operating and EBITDA margins of 7.6% and 9.5% respectively, as a result of our productivity and commercial efforts. In particular, we registered important improvements in operating expenses, which came in at 8.0% over net sales, among the lowest percentages in the company's history," Arvizu added.

He also said that the company faced sanitary challenges, as some of their farms were affected by an outbreak of influenza H7N3, which only affects birds. They immediately reinforced their bio-security programmes, and executed several measures to mitigate negative effects in this regard and to assure their standard quality service to their customers. As of today, the outbreak of influenza is under control but not yet eradicated.

"Due the influenza outbreak, in the first quarter we recognised a one-time charge in our production cost of MXN220.8 million (US$18 million), mainly attributed to the loss of inventory. Finally, I would like to reiterate the strong financial position that the company maintains, with negative net debt of MXN3,630.3 million (US$300 million) at the end of the first quarter."