Meiji Dairies Corp. said Tuesday its fiscal first half group net profit improved 42.2 percent to 5.69 billion yen.
Most of that came from a one-time sale of fixed assets that brought a profit of 3.46 billion yen.
In an earnings report for the April-September period, Meiji Dairies said pretax profit rose 6.6 percent to 9.71 billion yen despite a 5 percent fall in sales to 369.21 billion yen.
The company blamed the sales drop on intensifying competition with rival producers and on this year's unusually cool summer, which dealt a blow to sales of ice cream products.
But Meiji's pretax profit increased partly because its interest payment dropped significantly and since its losses stemming from the sale of inventories shrank.