This summary is based on the third quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG: chart) on March 27, 2008.

Management:

- Chief Executive Officer: Gary Rodkin
- Chief Financial Officer: Andre Hawaux
- Executive Vice President, Legal and Communications: Rob Sharpe
- President, Commercial Operations: Greg Heckman
- President, Sales: Doug Knudsen
- Vice President, Investor Relations: Chris Klinefelter

Key Investors Issues

- Earnings rose 60.5% to $309 million or 63 cents.
- Sales increased by 20.9% to $3.53 billion from $2.92 billion in the prior year.
- The firm sold off the Trading and Merchandising unit.

Third Quarter Highlights

The firm released earnings of $309 million or 63 cents, up 60.5% from $192.6 million or 38 cents in the prior year as food and ingredients had a great top and bottom line performance.

- Sales were up 20.9% to $3.53 billion from $2.92 billion in the prior year as comparable consumer food sales were up 6%, a big improvement from earlier trends as volume delivered 4 points of comparable growth and price mix delivered another 2 points, mostly from pricing.
- Once the firm was confident that it had the customer service issues settled, it executed much more appropriate pricing to compensate for the dramatic rise in input costs.

Interest expense was $62 million, higher than last year because of the short-term debt used to finance all working capital requirements.

- Capital expenditure was $72 million, less than a year ago strictly due to timing and is expected to be around $450 million to $475 million for fiscal year 2008.
- Dividends were $93 million, slightly above last year''s amount due to increases in the dividends.

Consumer Brands Performance:

- Healthy Choice is up more than 20%, largely reflecting the fact that the Café Steamers demand is strong and the firm is now off allocation.
- Hebrew National and Marie Callender’s continued their strong two-year momentum, Hunts sales are up about 7% overall and the dollar share in the canned tomato category is up 2 points.
- The diced tomatoes in particular showed a strong gain of almost 4 points, benefiting from the new ad campaign and introduction of the fire-roasted.
- Swiss Miss Cocoa sales grew by more than 15% on the strength of innovations like Pick Me Up hot chocolate, which has as much caffeine as a cup of coffee and Great Start hot chocolate, which is fortified with 15 vitamins and minerals.

The firm began a Wal-Mart roll-out of Orville Redenbacher Smart Cakes which are nutritious snacks made from popcorn, available in great flavors like cheddar cheese and sour cream and onion.

- Another new item introduced late this quarter is Egg Beaters With Yolk with a dramatically better nutritional profile meaning much lower fat, calories and cholesterol than shell eggs and tastes just as good. Both of these items are off to a good start.
- Frozen sales were up almost 6% as a whole this quarter and the firm has phased out unprofitable promotions.
- Sales in unmeasured channels are very strong as is the case with many of the products resulting in higher quality frozen sales and improved profitability.
- Profits for consumer foods were down more than 25% on a comparable basis. essentially due to input costs, with the biggest increases in cooking oils, eggs, beef, chicken, nuts and some dairy items.

Foods and Ingredients:

- Sales were $1.0 billion, 24% ahead of last year, with the increase driven largely by higher wheat values in the milling operations, as well as stronger prices and slightly increased volumes for the Lamb Weston specialty potato and appetizer operations.
- Operating profit was $144 million, 33% ahead of year-ago amounts. Increases in values for wheat positions allowed the milling operations to manage through volatile wheat input costs and significantly increase profitability, as did higher flour prices necessitated by higher input costs.
- Profit growth also reflects Lamb Weston’s export and appetizer sales growth.

Shortly after the end of the quarter, the firm purchased Watts Brothers, a top quality supplier of potatoes for Lamb Weston as well as frozen vegetables for the consumer foods operations.

- Watts Brothers will help expand the base and agricultural supply for Lamb Weston.
It goes without saying that the trading and merchandising profits were remarkable.
- Operating profit of $199 million, was more than three times last year''s $62 million, with the biggest increase occurring in the agricultural commodities trading and merchandising, which capitalized on the wheat market volatility.

International Segment:

- Sales were $165 million, 6% ahead of year-ago amounts and excluding the benefit of a weaker dollar, declined approximately 1%.
- Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America posted increased sales, with the strongest overall segment category performances coming from popcorn, cooking oil, and cooking sprays.