ConAgra Foods, Inc., one of North America's leading packaged food companies, recently reported results for the fiscal 2010 second quarter ended Nov. 29. Diluted EPS from continuing operations was $0.55 compared with $0.38 a year ago. Current quarter results include $0.03 per diluted share of net benefit, and prior year amounts included $0.05 of net expense, from items impacting comparability. Diluted EPS from continuing operations was up 45 percent as reported and 21 percent on a comparable basis.
Items impacting comparability in the current year and prior year are summarized toward the end of this release.
Sales for the Commercial Foods segment were $1.095 million, 11 percent below last year's $1.235 million; approximately $110 million of the sales decline was due to lower flour milling sales, which reflect the pass-through impact of lower underlying wheat costs. Segment operating profit was $160 million, 1 percent above last year's $158 million. Lamb Weston profits improved, reflecting the positive impacts of higher prices necessitated by increased input costs, as well as plant efficiencies and a refinement to its product cost allocation process; these were partially offset by the negative impact on sales and volume of difficult food service industry conditions.