Milk Processor-Distributors' Sales, Costs, and Margins, 1979

Milk processor-distributors 1979 pretax profits fell to 57 cents per hundredweight of raw material processed, 8 cents less than in 1978. Returns per hundredweight (cwt) rose by $2.24 (9.4 percent) but raw materials costs rose by $1.92 (13.7 percent) and operating expenses by 40 cents (7.3 percent). Greater employee productivity kept growth in wages per cwt processed to 25 percent in 1972-79, despite a 70-percent rise in hourly wages over the same period. These findings are based on audits of 30 fluid milk processor-distributors between 1972 and 1979.