Pinnacle Foods came out of its third quarter with a few marked increases, including a 2.0% jump in net sales from $624 million to $636.3 million.
"We are pleased with our performance in the quarter,” the company stated in its financial release. “Strong top- and bottom-line results in North America Retail were driven by strength of the base business, including the benefit of our recently-launched innovation, and the Gardein acquisition."
Based on the following full year assumptions, Pinnacle Foods stated that it continues to expect adjusted diluted EPS for 2015 in the range of $1.89 to $1.91:
For the Specialty Foods segment, Pinnacle saw a 13.9% decrease from $95.4 million this time last year to $82.2 million, which it attributed to a lower volume of 14.2%, though this was partially offset by a .3% higher net realization.
The category’s EBIT also saw a marked decline of 21.6%, from last year’s $9.9 million to this year’s $7.8 million.
Gross profit in the third quarter of 2015 increased 7.9% to $176.9 million, or 27.8% of net sales, compared to gross profit this time last year of $163.9 million, or 26.3% of net sales.
EBIT in the third quarter of 2015 declined to $97.8 million, compared to $246.6 million in the same quarter of 2014. This, the company said, was due to the prior year benefit of $163 million from a previously announced termination fee.
Overall, the company concluded that it remains confident in its outlook for the full year, adding that it expanded its gross margin meaningfully and again outpaced the performance of its composite categories.
