US FRUIT and vegetable distributor Chiquita Brands is to roll off the lease on five of its containerships from its 24-chartered-vessel fleet of 10,000 reefer capacity as part of a US$60 million cost-cutting operation, and instead, to ship the cargo by third-party vessels.
Following a lacklustre second quarter performance from April to June, the company, with core business in shipping banana and salads, saw net profit drop to $6 million from $78 million in the same period 2011.
The profit decline is blamed on slack demand in its European bananas and pre-packaged salad businesses.
Several years ago, the Charlotte, North Carolina-headquartered company followed a sales and lease-batch with its current fleet for an average period of five to eight years.
The fleet is now 100 per cent chartered or leased. It hopes with more vessels being chartered, it can achieve savings, said its vice president Brian Kocher in a statement. The company hopes to claw back revenue in carrying out operational changes and management restructuring so that it can see returns by fourth quarter 2012, said Mr Kocher, cited a report from London's Containerisation International. It has begun the search for a replacement of its current CEO Fernando Aguirre.