Swift & Co. reports increase in sales

GREELEY — Swift & Co. reported $2.63 billion in net sales for its first quarter of fiscal year 2005 that ended Aug. 29, 2004. This is a 6 percent increase from $2.48 billion the company earned in the same quarter last year.
The company said performance of its pork and Australian beef segments helped offset the performance of Swift Beef, which continued to struggle because of concerns about Bovine Spongiform Enchphalopathy, commonly known as ?mad cow? disease.
The continued closure of the U.S. border to live Canadian cattle helped keep cattle prices high and the closure of key U.S. export markets resulted in a nearly 23 percent decline in Swift’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The company experienced a decline from $95.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2004 to $73.6 million in the fiscal year 2005 first quarter.
“The first quarter of fiscal year 2004 was the last strong quarter for the U.S. beef industry before BSE was identified in the U.S. late last year,´ said John N. Simons, president and CEO of Swift & Co. “The unusual weakness in beef this quarter, and the resulting unusually strong performance by Swift Port and Swift Australia, make year-to-year comparisons difficult, but it also illustrates the effectiveness of our three-legged-stool business model.”
Swift Pork recorded a 34.5 percent increase in sales to $600.2 million. Swift Australia reported quarterly net sales of $566.6 million – an increase of 33.7 percent.

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