December 11, 2013
Smithfield reports US$4.2 million losses in Q2
In the second quarter of its fiscal year, Smithfield Foods Inc. lost US$4.2 million, compared with a US$10.9 million profit in the same period in 2012 buoyed by the weak results in its pork division.
The pork company also attributed the loss to the US$52 million expenses associated with its recent acquisition by Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. of China.
Sales during the quarter, which ended October 27, rose to US$3.4 billion from US$3.2 billion in the same time frame a year before.
The results were released in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It was the first earnings report since Shuanghui bought the Smithfield-based company in September.
The significant increase in hog prices during the quarter has lowered the profit in its pork business to US$70.5 million from US$194.3 million in the third quarter of 2012, according to the company.
Smithfield''soften-troubled hog-production, or hog-raising, division recorded a US$13.4 million profit, compared with a US$32.6 million loss in the comparable period last year.
In the report, Smithfield reaffirmed its plan to replace all "gestation crates" for pregnant sows - which have been criticised by animal-rights groups as too cramped and inhumane - at its farms by the end of 2017.
Smithfield, after it was bought by Shuanghui, became a private company and was taken off the New York Stock Exchange. But C. Larry Pope, the company''s president and CEO, said it would continue to release earnings reports.