THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, November 18, 1994              TAG: 9411180548
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: (Staff)
                                             LENGTH: Short :   31 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** Joseph W. Luter III is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods Inc. His full name and titles were omitted from a BusinessNews brief Friday. Correction published in The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star on Saturday, November 19, 1994, on page A2. ***************************************************************** SMITHFIELD POSTS RECORD SECOND-QUARTER PROFIT

Smithfield Foods Inc. said Thursday that its net income for the quarter ending Oct. 30 rose sharply to $7.8 million, or 45 cents a share. A year ago, in the meatpacker's second quarter, net income was $923,000, or 4 cents a share. Sales rose 8.6 percent in the latest quarter, to $385.4 million. Luter attributed the record second-quarter results to an ample supply of hogs and improving efficiencies at Smithfield's Bladen County, N.C., processing plant. The large increase in hog supplies in the quarter led to lower hog prices and to an aggregate operating loss at the company's two hog-production operations. But Luter said that the company's vertical-integration strategy meant that its processing operations picked up the earnings slack at its hog farms. by CNB