GREELEY, Colo. — Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. has recently reported its second quarter 2018 financial results.
Second quarter highlights include:
* Net sales of $2.84 billion, an increase of 3.1 percent versus the same quarter last year. Net income reported at $106.5 million.
* Adjusted operating income of $212.4 million, excluding the impact of grain derivative loss and one-time expense. Adjusting operating income margins of 6.5 percent in the U.S., 16.6 percent in Mexico and 4.8 percent in Europe operations, respectively.
Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amoritization) of $282.5 million and adjusted EPS (earnings per share) of 53 cents.
* Portfolio strategy along with history of acquisitions and investments, with international operations now accounting for 30 percent of sales; the increased diversification and addition of differentiated products with key customer approach has continued to generate growth while moderating margin compression in any specific market.
* Mexican operations continue to deliver solid results with EBITDA margins of 19.6 percent, driven by strong operating performance and growing demand for chicken, investments into premium Pilgrim’s brands is gaining momentum and producing great results.
* New U.S. credit facility was substantially oversubscribed and received strong support from lending partners with favorable terms for future benefits, solidifying capital structure to pursue strategic intent.
“During Q2 market conditions within our U.S. operations were mixed, with the commodity segment counter seasonal and weak whereas the less commodity businesses continued to be strong and well balanced,” said Bill Lovette, Pilgrim’s Pride CEO. “Despite some volatility in feed and less than ideal market conditions in the commodity chicken sector, the investments we made over the past few years, the recent acquisitions and our capture of operational improvements, and the strength of our small bird case-ready businesses helped us to offset some of the impact from the commodity markets and contribute to the evolution of our portfolio in supporting our vision to become the best and most respected company in our industry.”
“Mexico once again delivered strong results during the quarter as we had strong operating performance, as well as very good demand for chicken,” he said. “Our volumes increased during the quarter, driving a robust EBITDA performance of 19.6 percent, which together with our differentiated strategy and dedication of our team members, extended the outperformance over the main competition over the past few years. Our Prepared Foods are growing at a double digit rate and are generating strong results under both premium Pilgrim’s and Del Dia to drive the evolution of our Mexican portfolio towards more differentiated, higher-value products, and ultimately market expansion.”
“In Europe, we are already recording an improvement in performance and are seeing expected results from the integration, with significant share gained at a key customer and several other projects to further optimize our relationships, highlighting how our newly acquired operations are already benefiting from our team’s enhanced focus with key customer strategy,” Lovette added. “The operational improvements initiatives are also going well and we are slightly ahead of our $50 million synergy target for the next two years. We are innovating in the market in Europe by continuing to develop exciting products to satisfy a growing consumer demand for chicken and alternative forms of proteins, which can be easily adapted to other markets we participate in.”
More information can be obtained at www.pilgrims.com.
