Singapore Food Industries (SFI) said yesterday its third-quarter net profit climbed 26.7 per cent to $5.5 million - from $4.3 million a year earlier - as food distribution and catering sales improved. Earnings per share rose to 1.1 cents, from 0.9 cent a year earlier. Turnover for the three months ended Sept 30, 2007 rose 13.4 per cent to $162 million, from $142.9 million previously. Revenue was boosted by higher sales in Singapore that offset relative weakness in overseas markets. Turnover from Singapore rose 23.7% to $66.8 million on higher sales across all Singapore businesses. As a result, profit before tax from Singapore operations increased a substantial 45.5% to $8.2 million. Turnover from overseas operations also grew, by 7% to $95.2 million. But an $800,000 overall loss was incurred because of losses at subsidiaries Cresset and Shanghai STFI. 'The improvement in performance in the Singapore operations in the third quarter has been broad-based,' said SFI chief executive Roger Yeo. 'This improvement has helped offset the relative weakness in overseas operations, which were affected by significant raw material cost increases in the UK. We will mitigate these higher raw material costs through price increases.' (BT)

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