Fruit and Vegetable trader Del Monte Pacific managed to lower "one-off" expenses for its US subsidiary, which helped deliver a third-quarter net profit of US$2.6 million, compared to a net loss of US$38.4 million for the year-ago period.
Without "one-off" items - for both years for its US subsidiary - for plant closures and tax changes, the recurring net income of US$3.0 million would have been lower than last year's recurring net income of US$3.4 million, the group states in Singapore.
Del Monte Pacific had sustained one-off expenses net of tax of US$0.5 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2019, compared to US$41.8 million for fiscal year 2018, This was mostly due to written-off deferred tax assets, resulted from a change in the federal income tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent.
For the three months ended Jan 31, revenue dropped 11.8 per cent to US$528.7 million from the prior year's results. The cause of this was primarily due to the divestiture of the Sager Creek vegetable business in September 2017, a decrease in US sales overall, lower exports of processed pineapple items and lower pricing of pineapple juice concentrate.
Prospects for fiscal 2019 are positive, though Del Monte stated it faces challenges with changes in consumer demographics and preferences, besides Americans' eating and shopping patterns and preferences.
Del Monte Pacific will "continue to optimise its cost structure and invest in a multi-year restructuring project for its operations and supply chain footprint to more efficiently support its commercial strategy".