Dole results strong
across the board

The company posts a
72 percent increase in
fourth-quarter profit

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Dole Food Co. today reported a 72 percent increase in fourth-quarter net income, giving the company's stock a strong boost on Wall Street.

The company, which is a major pineapple grower in Hawaii and has other agricultural interests here, showed a profit of $23.2 million, or 38 cents a share, for the three months through Jan. 3, compared with $13.5 million, or 22 cents a share, in the 1996 final quarter.

Dole's stock rose $1.62-1/2 to $50.37-1/2 in trading today on the New York Stock Exchange.

Although much of the profit difference was due to a nonrecurring charge of $50 million in the 1996 quarter connected with the restructuring of Dole's dried fruit and nut business, the company said quarterly revenues and operating profits were higher.

The company had revenues of $1.09 billion in the latest quarter, up 22 percent from $891,088 in the year-earlier period. Profit from operations was $36.98 million, up 32.1 percent from $28 million (before the one-time charge) in the 1996 quarter.

For the full year, Dole had a net profit of $160.16 million, or $2.65 a share, on revenues of $4.34 billion. The net was 23.2 percent higher than the 1996 profit of $130.03 million, or $2.15 a share, on revenues of $3.84 billion.

David H. Murdock, chairman and chief executive officer, said the full-year profit was a record and came from strong operating performance in all of the company's operating units.

The Westlake Village, Calif.-based company was able to reduce its debt and cut its interest expense 6 percent for the year, to $64.6 million from $68.7 million in 1996. The debt at the end of the year was $737.3 million compared to $891.4 million in 1996.

The company's operating profit for 1997 was $244 million, up 13.9 percent from $214.3 million in 1996, before the nonrecurring charge.

Dole, founded in Hawaii in the first half of last century, is the world's largest producer and marketer of fresh fruit and vegetables and is a growing marketer of packaged foods.