Dallas-based Frozen Food Express Industries, in the middle of a restructuring, reported a $563,000 loss for the first quarter.
Revenue for the quarter was $92.4 million, compared to $88.3 million for the first quarter of 1999. The company had net income of $1.3 million for the first quarter of 1999.
The most recent quarter was actually an improvement over the fourth quarter of 1999, for which the company reported a loss of $13.6 million. "If you take away the $17.5 million in restructuring and other pre-tax charges we booked in 1999's fourth quarter, that loss would have been about $2.5 million, or 15 cents a share," said Stoney M. (Mit) Stubbs, Jr., chairman and ceo. "Part of the 1999 charge was to reserve for severance associated with the elimination of 150 non-driver jobs. We have reached about 30% of that goal. We had the same driver-shortage problems in the first quarter that we had last year, and diesel fuel prices were
significantly higher, yet we not only substantially cut our loss from fourth-quarter levels, we also generated about $2.5 million more in freight revenue."
Stubbs added that some of the first-quarter revenue increase was the result of fuel surcharges that tracked the increase in fuel prices.
"But some of it came from an increase in demand for our services, which enabled us to use our fleet more efficiently and contributed to the lower loss for the quarter," he said.