RYDER REPORTS SMALL PROFIT RECOVERY IN 4TH QUARTER

RYDER REPORTS SMALL PROFIT RECOVERY IN 4TH QUARTER    Ryder System Inc., the truck leasing, transportation management and supply-chain services group, reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $27.4 million, compared to $5.9 million for the year-earlier quarter.
   The improvement was due mainly to the non-recurrence of $47.4 million in restructuring charges in the fourth quarter of 1999.
   Revenue increased to $1.36 billion for the three months ending Dec. 31, up from $1.32 billion in year-earlier quarter.
   Pre-tax earnings from continuing operations, before unusual items, were $48.2 million in the latest quarter, compared with $58.4 million in the year-earlier quarter. “The reduction is due to a difficult operating environment, particularly ongoing weakness in the used truck market, and also a $5-million gain on the sale of land in 1999,” Ryder said.
      Unusual costs totaled $4.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2000, compared with $48.2 million in the same period last year.
   For the year, Ryder’s revenue was $5.34 billion, up from $4.95 billion in 1999. Pre-tax earnings from continuing operations, before unusual items, were $183.3 million, down from $193.6 million last year. Unusual items, principally asset impairment charges, totaled $42.0 million, compared with $76.1 million during 1999. Net earnings dropped to $89.0 million last year, from $419.6 million in 1999, when the company made a $339.3 million on the sale of activities.
   Ryder’s supply chain solutions business saw gross revenue increase to $423.1 million in the latest quarter, from $404.6 million a year earlier. The supply chain solutions’ contribution margin (profit before central services costs) improved to $21.0 million in the fourth quarter, from $16.4 million. Ryder said the increase in contribution margin was due primarily to better results in its international logistics operations. For the year, supply-chain activities had revenues of $1.61 billion, up from $1.45 billion in 1999, and a contribution margin of $73.1 million last year, up from $56.3 million in 1999.
   Gregory T. Swienton, president and chief executive officer, said Ryder’s operating environment “is still challenging.”
   “The U.S. is in an economic slowdown, which has been apparent in the segments we serve,” he said. “Production cutbacks in certain key customer industries, particularly the automotive industry, will have a negative impact on Ryder. We are also experiencing a continued slowing of our commercial rental business segment as well as the continuation of the depressed used truck market.”
   Nonetheless, he added that, in periods of economic slowdown, “some customers are actually motivated to increase outsourcing.”
   Ryder predicted its revenue growth this year will be modest, and profit margins and earnings slightly higher than in 2000.