Pilgrim’s net income up 27 percent in Q2 2015

Pilgrim's achieved a net income of $241.5 million during the second quarter of fiscal year 2015, an improvement of 27 percent when compared to the same quarter of 2014.
Other highlights during the quarter include a rise in adjusted earnings per share, recording $0.94 in the second quarter of 2015, compared to $0.73 in the same period last year. Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) for the quarter were recorded at $425.8 million, or a 20.7 percent margin, a 26 percent improvement when compared to the $337.1 million generated in the prior year.
One down side for the quarter was that net sales were at $2.05 billion for the thirteen-week period, a drop from the $2.19 billion in net sales for the same period in 2014.
"We remain very committed to our goals of joint value creation with key customers, relentless pursuit of operational excellence and growing value added exports, and despite ongoing export challenges during Q2, our team has once again delivered solid results," stated Bill Lovette, CEO of Pilgrim's.
"The business continues to generate strong cash flows and our team remains relentless in finding additional opportunities to improve our operations and build competitive advantages. We are on target to achieve $200 million in operational improvements for the year. During Q2 we completed investment projects at two of our plants that negatively impacted quarterly production volumes, but should result in improved efficiencies and enhanced sales mix opportunities."
"The vision and diversification strategy that we have implemented over the past few years are creating an opportunity for us to keep our strong performance in different market conditions and with lower volatility than any specific segment. In addition, our growth in Mexican operations through acquisition and greenfields will complement our existing facilities in the region, and make us a stronger player by improving our geographical coverage and serve the future growing needs of that market."