Alliance Tuna posts highest ever quarterly earnings

Soaring sales in its major markets helped Alliance Tuna International Inc., one of the largest canned tuna exporters in the country, to its highest quarterly profit ever of $1.6 million, up 168 percent from the third quarter last year.

This brought year-to-date net earnings to $2.7 million, 27 percent higher than the previous level, due to a 25 percent rise in sales and cost control measures.

Third quarter revenues went up 26 percent to $14.6 million, lifting year to date revenues to $14.6 million or an increase of 25 percent from the previous level.

“This huge jump in revenue means that the company is on track to easily surpass its 2007 revenue by a substantial margin yet again,” Alliance Tuna said in its financial report filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Gross profit rose 37 percent to $4.7 million in the January to September period while gross profit margin posted a 12 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

“The marketing environment in the third quarter was very favorable and we positioned ourselves perfectly to take advantage of that opportunity. Our goal is to chase profits rather than volume and our marketing decisions are predicated on maximizing profitability,” said Alliance Tuna president and chief executive officer Jonathan Dee.

Alliance Tuna, the only listed company in both the tuna industry and the Socsargen area, can process a combined 120 metric tons of yellowfin and skipjack tuna per day.

The company sells around 1.5 million cases of canned tuna products a year in over 47 countries.

To boost its profitability, Alliance Tuna is planning to acquire a controlling stake in Prime Foods NZ Ltd., a Hororata, New Zealand-based processor of smoked salmon, via an investment of NZ $1.3 million. – Zinnia dela Peña