SunOpta Announces Record Third Quarter and Year-to-Date Earnings

08 Nov 2012 --- SunOpta has announced that revenues for the third quarter increased 8.7% to $279.3 million as compared to $257.0 million in the third quarter of 2011. Excluding the impact of changes including foreign exchange rates, commodity-related pricing, acquisitions and rationalized product lines, revenues increased approximately 6% on a consolidated basis versus the prior year. The increase in consolidated revenues in the third quarter was driven by strong growth across integrated grains-based food product categories within SunOpta Foods and higher sales within Opta Minerals Inc. as a result of recent acquisitions. These increases were somewhat offset by the effect of lower fiber and fruit ingredients sales and decreased revenues in the Company's European organic ingredients operation.

"We are very pleased with our third quarter financial results, reflecting higher revenues and a 72% increase in both operating income and earnings versus the prior year," commented Steve Bromley, SunOpta's Chief Executive Officer. "We continue to execute on our core strategies focused on streamlining our organization, growing our value-added packaged foods and ingredients portfolio, and leveraging our existing platform. We are pleased with our progress to-date and remain confident in our opportunities to grow our global integrated natural and organic foods platform."

 

Operating income increased 72.4% to $12.7 million, or 4.5% of revenues, for the third quarter of 2012 as compared to $7.4 million, or 2.9% of revenues, for the same period last year. This increase was led by a significant improvement in operating income in the Grains and Foods Group versus the prior year as a result of increased volumes of aseptically packaged grains-based beverages and strong organic grains and feedstuff sales, as well as significantly improved results in Opta Minerals and reduced selling, general and administrative costs due in part to streamlining and rationalizations completed over the past year.

Earnings for the third quarter of 2012 were $5.8 million, or $0.09 per diluted common share, as compared to $3.4 million, or $0.05 per diluted common share, for the third quarter of 2011. These earnings are a third quarter record for the Company after excluding certain non-recurring items in prior years. Third quarter earnings include the impact of approximately $0.9 million in pre-tax severance, acquisition and start-up costs ($0.5 million after-tax).

 

For the quarter ended September 30, 2012, the Company realized EBITDA of $7.8 million as compared to $.9 million for the third quarter of 2012, a year-over-year increase of 50.5%. The effective tax rate for the third quarter of 2012 was 39.% as compared to 27.3% in the third quarter of 2012. The increase in the effective tax rate is primarily a result of increased earnings in higher tax jurisdictions in 2012 and the net effect of certain tax credits that were realized in the third quarter of 2012.