Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said Thursday it returned to the black in fiscal 2003 for the first time in five years, overcoming a string of damaging scandals.
The company posted a net profit of 1.42 billion yen for the year through March, following a net loss of 27.1 billion yen a year earlier.
Its sales for fiscal 2003 came to 318.12 billion yen, less than a quarter of what the company used to rack up in its prescandal days.
The former dairy giant has been trying to safeguard its very existence following a string of misdeeds, including a milk-related food-poisoning outbreak in 2000 and a meat-labeling scam involving a subsidiary in 2002.
The company has since sold off the bulk of its mainstay businesses, including milk, whose image was tainted beyond redemption.
Ongoing cost-cutting efforts allowed the company to post a profit, as was promised in its revival plan, it said.
The company now holds the top domestic market share in butter, cheese and margarine, it added.