During the fiscal year, Hain acquired Tilda, a specialty rice products company, and Rudi’s Organic Bakery, and introduced more than 200 new products. |
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y. — Demand for natural and organic products in the United States and United Kingdom drove earnings and sales to record levels for the Hain Celestial Group, Inc.
“Our business continues to benefit from strong growth trends in the organic and natural, better-for-you segment of consumer packaged goods as more consumers and retailers seek out our products,” said Irwin D. Simon, president and chief executive officer. “The success of our initiatives to drive profitable sales growth through distribution gains, strategic brand investments, new product innovation and accretive strategic acquisitions in complementary growth categories and geographies has positioned the company with a solid foundation to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities in front of us.”
Net income for the fiscal year ended June 30 was $139,851,000, equal to $2.86 per share on the common stock, up from $114,656,000, or $2.48 per share, in the same period a year ago.
Sales for the year rose 24% to $2,153,611,000.
“We completed our fiscal year with record net sales by delivering solid performance across brands and geographies, and I am pleased with the results,” Mr. Simon said. “Our U.S. business continued to generate strong results as momentum for organic and natural products builds across various channels of distribution. Our U.K. business posted record sales with increased profit contribution and our Rest of World segment delivered high single digit sales growth.”
In the company’s U.S. business unit, sales rose 17% to $1.28 billion. Sales in the U.K. were $637.5 million, and sales for the Rest of the World division were $200.5 million.
It was a busy year for the company. It completed two acquisitions, Tilda, a specialty rice products company, and Rudi’s Organic Bakery, and introduced more than 200 new products.
Looking ahead, Hain forecast its sales for fiscal 2015 will be in the range of $2.73 billion to $2.8 billion, an increase of 27% to 30% compared with fiscal 2015. Its guidance for earnings puts the results in a range of $3.72 to $3.90 per share, an increase of 17% to 23%. The guidance includes the company’s July 2014 acquisition of Hain Pure Protein Corp.