ML Macadamia ML Macadamia Orchards LP posted a profit of $236,000, or 3 cents a share, in the last three months of 2001, a turnaround from a loss of $1.5 million, or 19 cents a share, a year earlier.
turns around loss
following nut dispute
Purchaser Mauna Loa delays
a $2.5 million payment but
vows to pay by month's endBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comBut the company, which grows macadamia nuts on more than 4,000 acres of Big Island land that it owns or leases, said the figures were complicated by legal arguments over ownership changes relating to its exclusive nut buyer and distributor, Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp. That made the fourth-quarter 2001 not directly comparable with the 2000 quarter because of money that had to be set aside to settle the dispute.
But fourth-quarter 2001 nut sales of $5.18 million were up 29.8 percent from $3.22 million in the year-earlier quarter.
Some of the bottom-line difference has to do with the mainland-based Shansby Group's purchase of the distributing arm in September 2000 and legal hassles over obligations to purchase the macadamia nuts that were later settled.
Including that, for all of 2001 ML Macadamia Orchards had a profit of $1 million, or 13 cents a share, compared to a 2000 loss of $398,000, or 5 cents a share. Full-year sales of $12 million were up 21 percent from $9.9 million in the previous year. The year-over-year increase was partly a result of the settlement with the Shansby group, the company said.
For all of 2001, macadamia production was 23 million pounds, up 9.4 percent from 21 million pounds in 2000. The partnership received an average of 48 cents a pound for unprocessed nuts, down 5.9 percent from an average of 51 cents in 2000.
In a related development, the partnership said Mauna Loa was behind on payments for nuts delivered in the fourth quarter, and owes about $2.5 million, which it expects to receive by the end of the month.
ML Macadamia Orchards shares are really units of ownership in a partnership, but they are traded just like shares.