Pacer boosts net income 43% in 4th quarter

Pacer boosts net income 43% in 4th quarter    Pacer International, the Concord, Calif.-based stacktrain and transportation company, increased its net income 43 percent in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 26, to $11.4 million from $8 million in the year-earlier quarter.
   Operating income rose 6 percent to $21.7 million from $20.4 million, and gross revenue increased 5 percent to $456.3 million from $433.2 million in 2002.
   Net revenues for Pacer’s wholesale segment, which principally provides double-stack rail transportation services and cartage operations (local trucking), increased 19 percent to $71.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2003, from $60.7 million for the same quarter last year. The improvement in the wholesale segment came from strong business volumes in all three lines of Pacer stacktrain’s business — domestic, automotive and international — and to the addition of new locations for the cartage business.
   Net revenues for the fourth quarter from the company’s retail segment, which includes intermodal marketing, truck brokerage and services, international freight forwarding, supply chain management and warehouse and distribution services directly to manufacturers and retailers, decreased 17 percent to $28.1 million from $34.0 million for the same quarter in 2002. The reduction was primarily a result of business declines in the rail and truck brokerage units, largely due to “a one-time revenue surge experienced during the West Coast port closure in the fourth quarter of 2002,” the company said.
   Effective from the fourth quarter of 2003, results of the company’s cartage operations, which provide local pickup and delivery of goods, were moved from the retail segment to the wholesale segment to reflect current management structure.
   “Pacer’s wholesale segment continues to grow, driven by strong intermodal volumes,” said Don Orris, chairman and chief executive officer of Pacer. “Our domestic, automotive and international intermodal volumes were up 17.0 percent, 8.8 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively, quarter over quarter.”
   For the fiscal year ended Dec. 26, Pacer earned a net income of $79.2 million, up from $74.4 million in 2002. Operating income last year rose 7 percent to $79.2 million, and gross revenues increased 4 percent to $1.7 billion.
   Last August, Pacer completed a secondary public offering of 7.3 million shares of common stock.