MGPI Earnings Up

ATCHISON - May 6/04 - SNS --MGP Ingredients, Inc. reported third quarter net income of $1,999,000, or 26 cents per share, on sales of $75,215,000; compared to a loss of $312,000 on sales of $52,536,000 during the same period last year.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2004, ending March 31, the company posted net income of $6,303,000, or 82 cents per share, on sales of $191,678,000. That compares to net income of $6,526,000, or 81 cents per share, on sales of $139,843,000 for the prior year’s first nine months.

However, earnings for the first nine months of fiscal 2003 were principally due to $13 million in non-operating income ($7.9 million after the effects of income taxes) resulting from the recognition of insurance proceeds in excess of the net recorded costs of assets that were destroyed in the September 13, 2002 distillery explosion at MGPI’s Atchison, Kansas plant.

The improvement in the company’s third quarter performance versus a year ago was driven by a 123% increase in sales of specialty ingredients, consisting primarily of specialty wheat proteins and starches. This increase overwhelmingly offset a 4% decline in combined sales of commodity proteins and starches. As a result, total sales in the company’s ingredients segment in the third quarter amounted to $29,651,000, which is more than double the $14,699,000 in total ingredient sales that the company experienced in the third quarter of fiscal 2003.

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