Snow Brand Milk Products Co. continued to struggle in fiscal 2002, suffering a group net loss of 27.1 billion yen for the year that ended in March, the scandal-tainted dairy said Friday.
The loss is down from the net 71.74 billion yen shortfall in fiscal 2001.
Also in fiscal 2002, the firm's revenues dropped 37.6 percent to 727.1 billion yen.
Snow Brand has been able to survive thanks to a 50 billion yen bailout package from lenders as well as separate capital injections.
Despite the dismal earnings results, the firm is confident it can return to profitability for the first time in five years in the current fiscal year.
Snow officials said given the end of restructuring and the brisk sales of new products that debuted this spring, it forecast a group net profit of 3 billion yen for the 12-month period through next March.
The company, which once dominated the domestic dairy market, has spun off many operations, including the core consumer milk business, to concentrate on cheese, butter and margarine.
As the result of the spinoffs, the consolidated revenue projected for the current year is 310 billion yen, which would be less than a quarter of the sales before the massive food-poisoning outbreak linked to tainted dairy products Snow manufactured in 2000.