October 4, 2006

Swift & Co serves up sterling first quarter results

Swift & Co achieved impressive sales growth of 7.7 percent in its first quarter ended Aug 27. Net sales hit US$2.59 billion from US$2.4 billion during the same period last year.

Swift & Co's beef business expanded 11.6 percent while its pork operations expanded 4.5 percent.

First quarter EBITDA was US$53 million, nearly double that of the US$29 million in the same period last year.

The results were largely due to the use of effective strategies the company implemented, said Sam Rovit, president and chief executive officer. That and the improved US beef market combined to produce sterling results for the first quarter.

Swift Beef's first-quarter net sales increased 11.6 percent to US$1.57 billion, compared with US$1.4 billion the previous year.

Price increases of 2.7 percent were accompanied by volume increases of 8.7 percent. Both domestic demand and cattle supplies improved this year.

Meanwhile, Swift Pork's net sales went up 4.5 percent to US$546 million compared with US$523 million in the prior year period. Above-average pork demand has propped up selling prices.

However, Swift Australia's net sales fell 0.6 percent to US$482 million, largely from sales volume declines due to tighter cattle supplies.