The anticipation is killing me. So let's see how Heinz (NYSE:HNZ), a Motley Fool Income Investor pick, performed during the second quarter of its fiscal year.

The ketchup maker's net sales revenues rose 6.3% to $2.3 billion. Gross profit increased 5.3% to $842.3 million. However, selling, general, and administrative costs jumped 16.4%. The company said the higher costs were due to reorganization charges and higher fuel costs. Regardless, Heinz's operating income decreased by 9.6% to $310.5 million and net income from continuing operations fell 13% to $171.8 million, or $0.50 per diluted share. Excluding the expenses for reorganization, net income from continuing operations increased 10.7% to $212 million, or $0.62 per diluted share.

As can be seen, this earnings report is either good or bad depending on how you account for the restructuring charges. To get a more objective look at Heinz's performance, let's go to the free cash flow number. Here we see a 17.4% improvement over last year's second quarter, with free cash coming in at $175.1 million. There was a slight decrease of free cash for the six-month period of about 1%, but I'm not going to get too flustered about that.

In the company's North Americas consumer products group, sales jumped 10% on a volume increase of 4.2%. European sales were up 5.4% on essentially flat volume, and revenues for the Asia Pacific market climbed 7.1% on a volume increase of 3.9%.

The numbers tell me that Heinz is holding on, solid and steady, in a global marketplace that has been rocked by high energy prices. As fellow Fool Stephen Simpson has made clear, this isn't a growth story by any means. This is a story of a company with great brand equity and a penchant for delivering cash for investors.

Heinz has a great portfolio of products. And while divesting less valuable assets has a cost, Heinz can create long-term value by reallocating capital to assets with higher returns. Competition from private label brands and entities like Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) and ConAgra (NYSE:CAG) will always present a risk for investors. But those who hold for the long haul have a fine chance of being rewarded.

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Fool contributor Steven Mallas owns none of the companies mentioned. The Fool has a disclosure policy.