Higher charges and a negative impact on foreign currency translation have weighed heavy on Pilgrim's Pride's bottom line during the third quarter of its financial year.
For the thirteen weeks ended 27 September, net profit plunged to US$137.1m from $255.9m for the same period a year earlier. Pilgrim's Pride attributed the decline to higher foreign currency losses. Operating profit fell to $231.1m from $405.5m on the back of higher admin restructure costs.
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Sales also fell to $2.1bn from $2.3bn a year earlier.
"The continued challenges in the export markets, the strong dollar and the lowest chicken cutout in the past five years during Q3 have had an impact on the commodity segments of our business, and on our US export and Mexico sales. Additionally, non-routine costs at two of our facilities further weighed on our results," stated Bill Lovette, CEO of Pilgrim's.
"Despite these challenges, our team has managed to produce solid margins compared to periods when prices were at similar levels. The Q3 results are a strong validation of our portfolio model, and the strategy we have pursued and implemented over the past four years is fundamental in improving our ability to maintain strong performance, minimise the impact of different market conditions, and give us more consistent financial results. Although we expect export markets to gradually reopen soon depending on the domestic avian influenza situation, we choose not to stand still and be complacent. Instead, we continue to seek alternative and creative ways to reduce our dependencies on commodity products to produce more consistent margins by sharpening our focus on high growth markets."
For the nine-month period, net income increased to $582.7m from $544.5m.
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By GlobalDataOperating profit rose to $937.1m from $874.1m. Sales however were down at $6.2bn from $6.5bn.
