Frozen Food Express
announces improved
Q4, year-end results
Feb 17, 2011 10:19 AM
Frozen Food Express Industries Inc (Nasdaq:FFEX) has reported its financial and operating results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2010.
For 2010, total operating revenue decreased 1.1% or $4.2 million. Total operating revenue, net of fuel surcharges, fell 5.1% or $16.8 million, to $311.4 million from $328.2 million in 2009 due largely to an 8.0% reduction in average trucks in service. The net loss for the year improved 27.3% to $11.9 million, compared with $16.4 million.
Total operating revenue for the 2010 fourth quarter increased $2.7 million to $94.2 million versus $91.4 million in the same period of 2009. Total operating revenue excluding fuel surcharges was comparable to 2009 at $78.6 million. The net loss for the 2010 fourth quarter improved 41.6% or $1.1 million to $1.5 million, in contrast to $2.6 million in 2009.
Stoney M “Mit” Stubbs, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said, “Despite continued economic challenges, our truckload services continued to support stronger rates and deliver improved utility. We are pleased that our truckload revenue per total mile has held steady since rate increases taken at the end of the first quarter of this year. LTL services continue to benefit from increased focus on improved service dynamics. We’ve grown LTL tonnage by 5.0% this year compared to last; however we’ve seen that this part of the market continues to be very competitive in rates. We believe our improved service offering and nationwide footprint will allow us to command stronger rates in the future.”
Asset productivity (measured by revenue per truck per week) improved 2.9% to $3,221 for 2010 compared with $3,129 in 2009.
Russell Stubbs, the company’s president, said, “A key challenge in this market is to increase seated drivers to provide us the benefit of incremental revenue. We ended 2010 with an average weekly trucks in service number of 1,782 trucks, which was 155 trucks less than our 2009 average. We will grow our truckload revenue in 2011 by correcting this shortage. We have recently opened the FFE Driving Academy to allow us to train and develop new truck driving professionals and have also invested in our existing driver development infrastructure to support increased driver recruitment efforts. This combined with a new, more robust contractor lease program will give us the additional capacity needed in this market to grow our revenue in 2011. We expect these enhancements will significantly improve our ability to add qualified drivers to our existing fleet and take advantage of opportunities in the truckload marketplace.”
Additional information can be found at www.ffeinc.com.
