Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim’s Pride Corp (PPC), the second largest poultry producer in the US, saw net sales drop 1.4% year on year to US$637.1m for its Q3 ended 29 June 2002.
PPC also announced net income of US$3.3m (US$.08/share); a fall of US$22m year on year.
For the first nine months’ of FY 2002, PPC reported net income of US$17.5m (US$.43/share), a drop of US$10.7m year on year.
Net sales meanwhile were a record US$1.9bn, 20.4% up on the US$1.6bn for the same period last year, with the increase resulting primarily from the acquisition of WLR Foods, effective 27 January 2001.
David Van Hoose, CEO, president and COO, explained: “The primary factors resulting in the lower earnings for the Q3 were the negative effects of the outbreak of low-pathogenic avian influenza which affected PPC’s Eastern Turkey and Chicken Divisions by about US$7m and US$2m, net of tax respectively; currency-translation and devaluation losses in our Mexican operations of around US$5.5m, net of tax, offset in part by a US$2.1m, net of tax, gain attributable to a partial settlement of a vitamin antitrust lawsuit filed by the former WLR Foods in excess of the recovery amounts previously anticipated.

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By GlobalData“The Q3 was also negatively affected by low dark meat sales prices resulting from disruptions in poultry exports to Russia and Japan and by a poor sales mix in our Eastern Chicken Division that has negatively affected the previous two fiscal quarters and which we are in the process of correcting.”