Dive Brief:
- ConAgra said its net income tripled in the most recent quarter to $484.5 million from $147.2 million a year earlier, topping analysts expectations.
- The leap in profit came despite a drop in sales. Overall revenue fell 0.4%, while sales in the Omaha-based company's core food unit dropped 1%. Profit in the quarter came almost entirely from a one-time gain from its participation in the Ardent Mills grain venture it entered this year with Cargill and CHS.
- ConAgra said volume sales of its consumer foods, which includes brands such as Chef Boyardee, Healthy Choice, Pam, Reddi-Wip, and Orville Redenbacher, were flat in the most recent quarter but are improving.
Dive Insight:
ConAgra has loads of problems ... many of which involve its inability to integrate Ralcorp, which it bought early last year for $4.95 billion. That purchase made ConAgra the largest manufacturer of store brands in the U.S., which was supposed to be the center of ConAgra's attempt to reinvent itself.
So how did Ralcorp do this quarter? Not well. Sales fell 1.7% and the division's operating profit plunged 28%.