Shanghai-based Bright Dairy, the first major dairy producer to announce its 2008 results after the tainted milk scandal broke last September, said full year losses amounted to 286 million yuan (US$41.87 million), down 234 percent from 2007.

The company, the third largest dairy producer of China, said that its performance was dragged down by large unexpected expenses on management restructuring and sales promotion to counter the effect of the scandal that has seriously undermined consumers' confidence in the entire industry.

Those expenses included a 64.43 percent surge in corporate management fees to 463 million yuan, consisting mainly of extra bonus for the company's senior executives.

The top two dairy producers Mengniu and Yili are scheduled to post their results later this week. In their earnings alerts released earlier, Mengniu predicted a loss of 900 million yuan for 2008 and Yili said its losses could amount to 20.6 million yuan.

(chinadaily.com.cn March 31, 2009)