Japan’s three major dairy producers reported record group pretax profits for fiscal 2004 as they reaped the benefits of streamlining their businesses and revamping their product lines.

Meiji Dairies Corp. booked a 21% group pretax profit gain to $177.58 million (US), while sales grew only slightly to 725 billion yen.

Morinaga Milk Industry Co. saw group pretax profit rise 4%.

Snow Brand Milk Products Co. doubled group pretax profit to 6.6 billion yen thanks to the robust performance of its equity method affiliate in the frozen food business.