CELAYA, Mexico – Industrias Bachoco reported first-quarter net income of 1,260.9 million pesos ($67,112,348), which represents a basic and diluted income of 2.09 pesos per share ($0.11).

The result is an improvement over the first quarter of 2017, when the company reported net income of 652.8 million pesos, which represented a net income of 1.09 pesos of basic and diluted income per share. Net margin for the most recent quarter was 8.2 percent compared to 4.8 percent reported a year ago.

Net sales for the quarter totaled 15,303.0 million pesos, an increase of 11.8 percent over the 13,684.9 million pesos reported in the first quarter of 2017. Price increases in peso terms and more volume sold in Bachoco’s main product lines contributed to the result, according to the company.

“In Mexico, this first quarter started strong,” Bachoco CEO Rodolfo Ramos Arvizu said in a statement. “We believe that after the natural events that affected the economic dynamic in some regions of the country, demand for poultry products resumed its normal levels and combined with a moderate supply increase, allowed a balance supply–demand in the market.

“We did not see oversupply conditions as occurred in 1Q17,” he added.

Operating income for the quarter was 1,822.5 million pesos for an operating margin of 11.9 percent compared with an operating income of 929.8 million pesos and a 6.8 percent operating margin reported in the year-ago period. The company attributed the increase in operating income mainly to higher gross profit.

On a segment basis, sales in Bachoco’s operations in the United States also were strong at 4,211.5 million pesos, which represented 27.5 percent of the company’s total sales compared with 27.3 percent in the year-ago period, or 3,735.6 million pesos. In Mexico, net sales for the quarter totaled 11,091.5 million pesos, compared with 13,684.9 million pesos reported a year ago.

Net poultry sales for the first quarter totaled 13,774.5 million pesos compared with 12,286.6 million pesos reported in the first quarter of 2017. Sales volume of poultry totaled 422,181 tons in the most recent quarter compared with 419,219 tons of poultry in the year-ago quarter.

“In the US market, we observed stable conditions when compared with the same quarter of last year,” Arvizu said. “We continued with our process of integrating our 2017 acquisition and to capture synergies.

“Sales and volume of our main product lines continued growing in both markets, which led us to an increase of 11.8 percent in total sales for 1Q18 when compared to the same quarter of 2017,” he added.

Arvizu said the financial health of Bachoco remained healthy as the company reached a net cash level of 12,993.4 million pesos. “We will remain focused on continuous improvements and efficiencies across all of our processes and working close to our customers,” Arvizu said.

1 Mexican peso = $0.053 US dollar