May 15, 2007

Swift beef plants staffing back to normal; sees better operations this year

Swift & Co., reported Friday (May 11) standard staffing levels at all four domestic beef processing facilities has been returned following the detention and removal of approximately 950 Swift Beef employees by the US Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division on December 12 last year.

The raids also involved two Swift Pork processing facilities as its domestic pork operations returned to normal levels in March this year. ICE detained and removed a total of approximately 1,300 Swift Beef and Swift Pork employees during the raids.

After months of investigations, no charges or accusations have been made by the government against Swift or any current or former member of management in connection with the government's immigrant worker investigation, nor does the company have any reason to believe there will be in the future, states a company news release.

Sam Rovitt, Swift's president and CEO expressed satisfaction with the investigation and that they have been working diligently to train new team members to accelerate the return of beef facilities to full production capacity.

Swift also reported a revised financial impact estimate of the December 2006 ICE raids of US$45 million to US$50 million for its fiscal year ending May 28, 2007.

Ray Silcock, Swift's executive vice president and CFO said the company's original estimate of the December 2006 ICE event was US$30 million which breaks down into US$20 million lost in earnings and US$10 million in increased recruiting and training costs. Of the US$30 million, US$5 million was from Swift Pork and $25 million from Swift Beef.

As the end of the fiscal year approaches, Silcock said while Swift Pork estimate continues to be reasonably accurate, increased costs and lost slaughter opportunities in Swift Beef will total more than US$40 million for fiscal 2007, primarily due to the greater-than-originally-expected time required to bring its four beef plants back to full production."