PHOENIX — A late-April voluntary product recall of its Fresh Frozen line of frozen vegetables as well as select varieties of its Jamba “At Home” line of smoothie kits due to the presence of Listeria monocytogenes, in its Jefferson, Ga., facility contributed to a quarterly loss at Inventure Foods.
In the second quarter ended June 27, Inventure sustained a loss of $1,951,000, which compared with income of $2,472,000 in the same period a year ago. Excluding the costs associated with the product recall, Inventure had an adjusted loss of $454,000, which compared with adjusted net income of $2,141,000 in the same period a year ago.
Revenues also fell, decreasing to $66,422,000 from $71,852,000.
Terry McDaniel, c.e.o. of Inventure Foods. |
“The financial impact from a top-line and earnings standpoint was evident in the quarter as we began to rebuild our Fresh Frozen distribution and worked through kettle capacity constraints to meet the strong demand for Boulder Canyon,” said Terry McDaniel, chief executive officer of Inventure Foods. “Excluding the impact of our Fresh Frozen business, we generated an increase in consolidated second-quarter net revenues, and we are pleased with our team’s ability to get our Jefferson, Ga., facility back up and running. As we look to the balance of the year, we believe we are moving in the right direction, and the second half of 2015 will reflect improved results as we continue to grow our business.”
Gross profit in the company’s Snack segment totaled $5.4 million in the quarter, down from $6.4 million a year ago. Revenues increased nearly 14% to $31.5 million, reflecting higher sales for the Boulder Canyon and premium private label products.
“We generated positive sales growth during the second quarter of 2015 in our snack segment fueled by the strong performance of Boulder Canyon, which was up 26.6% from the second quarter of 2014, and snack private label, which was up 48.5% from the second quarter of 2014,” Mr. McDaniel said. “These results demonstrate the continued execution of our strategic plan to capture consumer demand within our healthy/natural and indulgent product portfolios.”
Gross profit in the Frozen segment fell to $2.6 million from $5.3 million, while revenues dipped 21% to $34.9 million from $44.1million.
“In the frozen segment, while it will take time for our Fresh Frozen brand to fully recover from our voluntary product recall, we expect to report improved results in the second half of 2015 as we are currently shipping approximately 40% of our normal volume through the use of our Jefferson, Ga., facility and co-packers,” Mr. McDaniel said. “We expect to be shipping all products to all customers by early October of 2015. Going forward, our team will continue to focus on managing the controllable aspects of our business for profitable growth and enhanced shareholder value over the long term.”
For the six months ended June 27, Inventure sustained a loss of $16,586,000, which compared with income of $4,069,000 in the same period a year ago. Net revenues were $144,029,000, up from $139,361,000.