Cargill profits plummet

Posted at 4:29 PM on January 10, 2012 by Bill Catlin (0 Comments)
Filed under: Minnesota Fortune 500 firms

Cargill today reported earnings plunged even as revenue jumped in the three months ending Nov. 30th.

Net income from continuing operations dropped 88 percent to $100 million.

Revenue was $33.3 billion, up 17 percent from a year ago.

"The second quarter was significantly below expectations," said CEO Greg Page in a statement.

He cited several factors:

• Commodity and financial markets were driven more by political uncertainties than by underlying supply and demand fundamentals.
• Performance in the sugar market was poor.
• The meat businesses experienced one of their weakest quarters.
• A significant number of one-time items, including asset impairments, and acquisition and integration expenses.

Cargill announced last month it will lay off up to 2,000 employees globally over the subsequent six months.

At the time, the company's workforce totaled 138,000 employees, with the layoffs affecting about 1.5 percent of them.

Page said Cargill is actively working both to reduce costs and simplify the agribusiness giant's work processes.

Page said the fundamentals of Cargill's business remain sound, and he's optimistic about the company's earnings prospects for the remainder of the fiscal year.

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