Frozen Food Express has announced its financial and operating results for the three- and nine-month periods ended Sept. 30.
For the quarter, total revenue was $127.0 million, as compared to $137.5 million during the same quarter of 2005. Total revenue included fuel surcharges of $22.2 million, compared to $18.7 million for the same quarter of 2005. Also included in total revenue was about $.5 million from disaster relief efforts compared to $1.9 million for the same period in 2005. Net income decreased to $2.9 million from $5.0 million for the third quarter of 2005.
“We continue to see signs that the freight economy is softening,” said Stoney M. “Mit” Stubbs, president and chief executive officer of Dallas-based Frozen Food Express. “We said that 2005 was going to be a tough act to follow in terms of bottom-line performance.”
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, total revenue decreased by less than one percent to $379.9 million from $382.2 million for the same period of 2005. Total revenue included fuel surcharge revenue of $59.4 million, compared to $43.5 million during the comparable period of 2005. Total revenue also included $2.5 million from disaster relief efforts.
Operating income for the nine-month period decreased to $12.1 million from $20.5 million for the comparable period of 2005. Contributing factors to higher operating expenses were fuel expenses, higher claims and self-insurance expense levels, lower gains on the sale of equipment and professional fees associated with an investigation that was completed earlier in 2006. Also included in operating expense during the 2006 and 2005 nine-month periods were $19.3 million and $20.6 million, respectively, of depreciation and amortization expense.
“Since we put our new management team in place a few months back, we have been looking for signs of improvement in consecutive quarters,” Stubbs said. “We are beginning to like what we see. Our operating ratio improved from 97.2 percent in the first six months of 2006 to 95.7 percent during the third quarter. One quarter doesn’t constitute a trend, but I think we are seeing some positive signs as we manage our way through a period of softening demand for our core linehaul services.”
