ConAgra Expects $525 Million of Capex in 2011 Fiscal Year

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--ConAgra Foods Incorporated (NYSE:CAG) (Omaha, Nebraska) recently reported fourth-quarter and full-year earnings for the company's 2010 fiscal year, which ended May 30, 2010. Although ConAgra's operating profits for the year were up 10.7%, net income of $723.3 million was down 26% from the 2009 fiscal year. ConAgra's capital expenditure was approximately $123 million for the fourth quarter and $500 million for the entire 2010 fiscal year.

"We are focused on growth and profit-enhancement investments, including new-product and capacity expansion, such as the new sweet-potato plant in Louisiana that is currently on track to open this fall," said Chief Financial Officer John Gehring in a conference call. Speaking of the 2011 fiscal year, Gehring said, "We expect capital expenditures to be approximately $525 million, which includes costs related to the completion of our sweet-potato plant, as well costs related to the expansion of our Troy, Ohio, facility plant in support of our Slim Jim recovery plan."

Industrial Info is tracking more than $430 million of ConAgra projects. Currently under construction is Phase I of a sweet-potato processing plant in Delhi, Louisiana. For additional information, see June 24, 2010, article - Louisiana Looks Onshore for $46 Billion Industrial Project Boost.

In May, ConAgra began an expansion of the company's snack food plant in Troy, Ohio. The construction entails a 75,000-square-foot building addition and the installation of four production lines to produce the company's Slim Jim meat snacks.

In June 2009, a natural-gas explosion at the company's Slim Jim manufacturing plant in Garner, North Carolina, took the lives of three workers. A fourth person died several months later as a result of injuries sustained in the blast, and dozens of workers were injured. Investigators began examining the damaged portion of the plant earlier this month to attempt to find the cause of the explosion.

ConAgra resumed Slim Jim production at the plant last fall, although the reduced capacity caused by the blast forced the company to lay off about 300 workers. The facility currently employs about 400 people. In March this year, ConAgra announced that it would be closing the Garner facility within 15 to 18 months and move all Slim Jim production to the Ohio facility.

The Ohio expansion has an estimated total investment value of $60 million and is scheduled to be wrapped up in the summer of 2011.

Details on these and other Food & Beverage Industry projects can be found in Industrial Info's North American Industrial Database.

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