Decline in resort sales Maui Land & Pineapple Co., suffering declines in all three of its units, said today it had a net loss of $2.2 million in the third quarter as resort real estate sales dropped dramatically from a year ago.
hurts MLP
By Dave Segal
dsegal@starbulletin.com"There's no question it was a disappointment," Chief Financial Officer Paul Meyer said. "It was a poor financial performance."
The company's Kapalua Resort posted an operating loss of $207,000 in the quarter compared with an operating profit of $6.5 million a year ago, while revenues fell 39 percent to $11.6 million from $19.1 million in 2001. Maui Land & Pineapple said reduced real estate sales, combined with lower visitor counts and resort occupancy due to Sept. 11, all contributed to the shortfall.
Meyer said that while he couldn't comment on the company's prospects for the current quarter, he did say that the resort hasn't see much of an increase in occupancy this month.
Overall, Maui Land & Pineapple had a loss of 31 cents a share compared with a gain of $2 million, or 27 cents a share, a year ago. Total revenues fell 16.2 percent to $38.5 million from $45.9 million.
The company's pineapple operations, which accounted for about two-thirds of Maui Land & Pineapple's revenues, had an operating loss of $2.2 million compared with a loss of $2 million a year ago as general and administrative expenses increased. Revenues, however, were $25.6 million, an increase of 1 percent from $25.5 million a year ago.
"Our pineapple division continued to experience competitive conditions in the canned pineapple business for the first three quarters of the year, but we're expecting that to moderate somewhat," Meyer said. "Our new products -- fresh cut pineapple, single-strength juice in PET containers and Hawaiian Gold fresh pineapple -- have not had revenues grow to the extent that they can make up for the weak performance in canned products."
Maui Land & Pineapple's commercial and property division posted an operating loss of $340,000 that was narrower than the operating loss of $432,000 a year ago. The company said the improved results were due mostly to lower administrative costs from Queen Kaahumanu Center.
