Nov 4, 2004 11:21 AM, from staff and wire reports

Frozen Food Express Industries Inc, the Dallas TX-based refrigerated carrier, reported that its net income for its 2004 third quarter was double that of the 2003 third quarter. The company’s total revenue increased by about 9%.

For the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2004, the company reported revenue of $117,176,000 and net income of $3,520,000, compared with revenue of $107,801,000 and net income of $1,705,000 for the same period of 2003. For the nine months ended Sept 30, 2004, the firm had revenue of $ 335,399,000 and net income of $8,952,000, versus revenue of $304,190,000 and net income of $3,584,000 for the same period of 2003.

Stoney M “Mit” Stubbs Jr, chairman and chief executive officer, attributed the improved performance to “the high demand for our services, which enabled us to use our fleet more efficiently, and to some improvement in our freight rates.

“Historically, our year has been seasonal, with demand for our refrigerated services highest during the warm months. But net income for our third quarter was slightly higher than this year’s second-quarter profit, which tells me that the growth of demand continues to take much of the seasonality out of our operations.”