The Imperial Sugar Company F4Q08 (Qtr End 10/30/08) Earnings Call Transcript

  • download
  • Print
  • Recommend
  • 0

2008-12-15 09:02:14.0

Tags: Capacity, Call Transcript, Earnings, Seeking Alpha, Imperial Sugar Co.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Jonathan Lichter – Sidoti & Company

Jonathan Lichter – Sidoti & Company

It looks like you won’t be restarting the Gramercy powdered sugar line, what’s the reason for that?

Hal Mechler

We’ve evaluated alternatives on the powdered sugar line at Gramercy and at this time we think it makes more economic sense to use the new facility in Savannah which will have the capacity to produce what, by adding a shift, will have the capacity to produce what was produced in Gramercy.

And that was a better economic choice then retrofitting and improving the facility in Gramercy.

Jonathan Lichter – Sidoti & Company

Can you give us just an overall timeline in terms of percentage of the plant that will be up and running at Port Wentworth throughout fiscal 2009.

Hal Mechler

Let me see if I can broadly tell you where we are, liquid sugar production which began in November, will get up to about I’d call it 10% of the capacity of the Port Wentworth facility. When we start granulated bulk shipments in the early part of 2009 that will take us up to nearly 50% of capacity in Georgia. And then the remaining capacity will come online as the silos are completed and packaging lines are brought up and that process will not start until the summer and be completed by the fall.

Jonathan Lichter – Sidoti & Company

It seems like, I think compared to last time, it’s a little bit later, then you had originally thought. What’s the reason for that?

Hal Mechler

It is a little bit later, there was the primary reason is there was damage to our granulation capacity in Port Wentworth that we hadn’t been aware of until we got in to inspect some of the equipment and it required us to replace some additional equipment not in the original timeline or the original plan.

Jonathan Lichter – Sidoti & Company

Can you also give us a sense of the size of the lawsuits that have been filed in Georgia?

Louis Bolognini

We have 19 lawsuits pending.

Jonathan Lichter – Sidoti & Company

What are they seeking?

Louis Bolognini

They are seeking monetary damages for injuries and loss of life, but there are no specific prayers for relief.

Jonathan Lichter – Sidoti & Company

So there are no specific figures there.

 

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Please add your comment:

  1. You are currently: a Guest |
  2.  

Basic HTML tags that work in comments are: bold (<b></b>), italic (<i></i>), underline (<u></u>), and hyperlink (<a href></a)

advertisement
advertisement
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
advertisement
Click Here