Del Monte’s Profit Doubles

Del Monte Foods Co., a San Francisco maker of canned fruit, vegetables and tuna fish, said Thursday that its fiscal first-quarter earnings doubled, driven by higher pricing, lower integration expense and reduced commodity costs.

Net income rose to $16.2 million, or 8 cents a share, in the first quarter ended July 31, up from $8.5 million, or 4 cents, a year earlier.

Sales grew 7.2% to $671.1 million from $626 million last year, driven by price hikes and increased volume from existing and new products.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected profit of 5 cents a share on sales of $642.3 million.

Del Monte recently raised prices to mitigate higher costs, especially soaring energy prices.

For fiscal 2006, Del Monte reiterated that it expected sales growth of about 1% to 3% over fiscal 2005 sales of $3.18 billion.

Shares of Del Monte rose 45 cents to $11.26.