TreeHouse Foods Inc. said revenue doubled in its latest quarter while profit halved, as the company works to integrate the private-label business it bought from ConAgra Foods Inc.
TreeHouse also said Chief Financial Officer Dennis Riordan would retire and that Chief Operating Officer Christopher Sliva would become its president. The company has begun a search for its new CFO.
TreeHouse’s earnings per share met Wall Street expectations, though revenue missed them. The company said its bottom line was hurt by a voluntary recall of sunflower seeds potentially contaminated with Listeria.
The Oak Brook, Ill., food company recently acquired the ConAgra Foods Inc.’s private-label business for about $2.7 billion, a bet that comes amid stiff competition for shelf space and sluggish growth for conventional packaged foods. In the segment that sells branded and private-label products, sales more than doubled, to $1.27 billion, almost exclusively due to the acquisition.
Sales in its segment that sells to restaurant chains and food distributors rose 28%, to $124.7 million. Sales in its industrial segment rose 84%, to $152.3 million.
In all, Treehouse reported a profit of $15.6 million for the period, or 27 cents a share, compared with a profit of $31.4 million, or 72 cents, a year prior. The number of shares outstanding increased 31% in the period. Excluding certain items, such as the sunflower seed recall, the company said it earned 54 cents a share. Revenue more than doubled, to $1.54 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projected 54 cents in earnings per share on $1.56 billion in sales.
Shares in the company, up 16% in the past three months, fell 1.9% to $99.60 in morning trading.
The company reaffirmed its annual adjusted earnings per share guidance.
By Austen Hufford
Source: Wall Street Journal
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