Frozen Food Express reports positive fourth quarter, loss for the year

Frozen Food Express Industries has reported income of $84,000 for its fourth quarter 2001, which ended December 31, 2001. This is up from the $67,000 reported for the same period of 2000 and marks the company’s third consecutive profitable quarter and the third in which earnings exceeded those of the previous year. The increase in net income was accomplished in the face of a $7 million decline in revenue from the same quarter of 2000, according to Stoney M Stubbs Jr, FFE chairman.

Stubbs says that most of the revenue shortfall came from non-freight operations. In late December 2001, FFE sold the majority of its non-freight business, W&B Service Company, a Carrier Transicold and Wabash National dealer. He says that total operating income in the fourth quarter was down about $100,000, but operating income from non-freight operations was down almost $2 million. In that light, trucking revenue actually increased by roughly $1.9 million compared to the same period of 2000.

For the entire year 2001, FFE reported a loss of $635,000, or four cents per share, compared to a $1.2 million, seven cents per share, loss for 2000. Annual revenue for 2001 was $378.4 million, down from $392.4 million in 2000. These figures include non-freight revenue, which was $51.1 million in 2001 and $68.8 million in 2000. For 2001, freight revenue was $327.3 million, which is 1.1% above the $323.6 million posted on freight revenue in 2000. Stubbs says that the increased freight revenue in 2001 is an indication of a larger market share in a depressed transportation economy.