Maui Land & Pineapple
hits blackIf it weren't for a big land sale,
the company would have posted
a loss in the first quarter
A large land sale last month helped push Maui Land & Pineapple Co. to a $1.5 million profit in the first quarter after it lost $600,000 in the year-earlier period.
The company said yesterday that the sale of a 6 1/2-acre conservation-zoned parcel at Kapalua, Maui, contributed $2.5 million to net income in the first quarter.
Earnings per share were 21 cents in the quarter compared with a loss of 9 cents a share a year ago. Revenues rose 17.1 percent to $40.3 million from $34.4 million.
MLP would have posted a loss in the quarter without the land transaction, which the company said will be used by the unidentified purchaser to build a private residence. The land sale added $3.9 million in operating profit to the company's development segment, which had an operating profit of $3.5 million compared with $636,000 a year ago.
Revenues of the development unit rose 53.9 percent to $4.1 million from $2.7 million a year ago.
The company's Kapalua Resort segment improved from a year ago as operating profit edged up 1.7 percent to $1.17 million from $1.15 million and revenue grew 13.9 percent to $14.4 million from $12.6 million. Room occupancies at the resort gained 14 percent from a year earlier and contributed to increased golf play, merchandise sales and increased revenues from hotel ground leases.
MLP warned, though, that its future pineapple results may be affected by heavy rainfall that soaked the island.
"The rainfall was indeed a record in some parts of the island on a year-to-date basis and, as a result, we did not make as much progress in getting new plants in the ground as we had planned to," said Chief Financial Officer Paul Meyer, who announced in March that he will be retiring at the end of June. "This will likely cause some additional expenses to catch up later this year, and possibly may impact the fruit production schedule as well."
Last quarter, MLP narrowed the operating loss in its pineapple division to $1.4 million from a loss of $2 million a year earlier. Pineapple revenues jumped 18.8 percent to $21.8 million from $18.3 million because of price increases and marketing efforts.
MLP said it had higher sales volume of canned pineapple to the U.S. government, as well as higher sales volume of fresh pineapple because of improved post-harvest practices that extended shelf life and allowed greater use of surface shipment to the West Coast rather than costlier air shipment.
The company said its commercial and property unit will be discontinued as a business segment because of the sale last year of MLP's two largest holdings; the 600,000-square-foot Queen Kaahumanu Center and the 44,000-square-foot Napili Plaza.
Last quarter, MLP had an operating profit of $8,000 from that unit compared with a loss of $220,000 a year ago. Revenues fell to $16,000 from $764,000 a year ago.
MLP still owns commercial property at Kapalua Resort, including a 22,000-square-foot shopping center, as well as small commercial properties scattered throughout the island. But the performance of those holdings will no longer be broken out as a separate unit.
