Chiquita Brands International has posted a loss in its third-quarter, on the back of a decline in sales and an increase in costs.
The company yesterday (3 November) reported a widening in net loss for its third-quarter, slumping to US$29m compared to a loss of $8m the same period the year before.
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Chiquita Brands also reported an operating loss of $10m for the three month period, down from a $6m profit last year. The company’s sales dropped to $723m, from $730m last year.
Salads and healthy snacks net sales decreased 5% to $240m, on the back of lower retail added-value salad volume, partially offset by growth in foodservice and healthy snacks. The division suffered from a comparable operating loss of $3m for the third-quarter, compared to income of $18m last year.
“While salad performance was below expectations, we began to close the gap versus last year on sales volume comparisons,” Fernando Aguirre, Chiquita Brands chairman and CEO said.
However, banana net sales increased 5% to $453m, due to higher unit volumes, higher pricing in North America and relatively unchanged European pricing on a US dollar basis, the company said. Comparable operating income was $7m for the third-quarter of this year, compared to $3m the same period last year.
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By GlobalDataFor the nine months ending 30 September, net income was $73m, down from $77m the year before. The group also reported a drop in operating income to $46m from $121m the previous year. Sales dropped to $2.42bn, down from $2.45bn for the nine months same-period.
The company said it expects to overcome ongoing industry cost inflation and improve results through improving trends in unit volumes and eliminating temporary excess salad production costs.
In October the European Commission (EC) found that the Chiquita and Pacific Fruit groups operated a price fixing cartel in Greece, Italy and Portugal between July 2004 and April 2005. The company escaped a fine because it blew the whistle on the cartel.
