On a comparable basis, the company reported income from continuing operations of $22m, or $0.49 per diluted share, vs income of $41m, or $0.94 per diluted share, in 2008.
“Our first-quarter was strong, especially considering the challenges we faced from currency and temporary flood-related costs,” said Fernando Aguirre, chairman and CEO. “We now have a head start on the year, and we’re confident in the execution of our profit-improvement and cost reduction initiatives, and our plan to improve full-year 2009 results on a comparable basis.
“Our banana results remained relatively strong. We’re also pleased with the early evidence of improvement in our performance in value-added salads. We’re on track to achieve our full-year target of 3-4% operating margins in salads in 2009, which is a significant improvement vs last year, as a direct result of the actions we’ve taken in the last several quarters related to pricing, cost reduction and network efficiencies.”
Source: Chiquita Brands
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