August 10, 2005

Maple Leaf Foods Q2 earnings up 22 percent

Canadian pork and food processing giant Maple Leaf Foods showed strong financial growth for its second quarter that ended June 30. Operating earnings is up 22 per cent, despite a small sales fall.

Sales for the second quarter decreased to C$1.7 billion (US$1.4 billion), a drop of 1 percent from previous year's Q2, due to lower commodity prices in pork, poultry and feed.

Sales for the first six months of 2005 increased by 13 per cent to US$2.63 billion, mainly because of its acquisition of Schneider Foods in April last year.

Operations earnings for Q2 was US$64.8 million, up by 22 percent from previous year's second quarter, while earnings for the first six months this year rose to US$115.62 million, a 24 percent increase from the same period last year.

However, comparisons of year-to-date earnings exclude operations restructuring costs of US$10.87 million in this year's Q1, as restructuring costs are not representative of continuing operations, Maple Leaf said.