US meat processor Tyson Foods has reported lower earnings for the first quarter, which the company described as “extremely difficult”.
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The company said net income was US$48m, or 14 cents per share, for the first quarter to 1 January, compared to $57m, or 16 cents per share, for the same period last year. Sales were flat at $6.5bn.
“The first quarter was extremely difficult for us this year. Nevertheless, our chicken business continued to perform well, our cash flow from operations was strong, and we reduced our debt by $292m. At the same time, continued market restrictions for beef, as well as a lack of live cattle supplies, and a tougher pricing environment for pork combined to impact our earnings,” said chairman and CEO John Tyson.
“As we said last quarter, we expect market conditions to remain challenging during the first half of our fiscal year. However, we do expect significant improvements in the second half of the year,” he added.
The company now estimates fiscal 2005 earnings per share to be in the range of $1.05 to $1.30.
