Nash Finch's quarterly earnings advance

Nash Finch Co, a national food distributor, announced that net earnings for its third quarter ended Oct 9, 2004, were $14.6 million, compared with $11.6 million for the third quarter a year ago. Total sales for the third quarter of 2004 were $1.191 billion versus $1.215 billion in the prior-year period.

For the first 40 weeks of 2004, total sales were $2.977 billion compared with $2.960 billion in the same period a year earlier. Net earnings totaled $3.7 million for the 40-week period of 2004, in contrast to $22.1 million in the year-ago period.