When it rains, it pours—and in this case, the more rain the merrier! United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) unveiled its financial results for the 14-week fourth quarter and fiscal year 53 weeks ended August 3, 2024, and it is full of strategic goodies. Within the report, the distributor noted several points of operational growth, including a net sales increase, a newly appointed executive, and improving volume trends.
“We delivered fourth quarter results that drove fiscal 2024 performance to the upper end of our previously provided outlook. This capped a year in which we generated four consecutive quarters of sequentially increasing profitability, significantly strengthened our foundation, and built momentum as we enter fiscal 2025,” shared Sandy Douglas, Chief Executive Officer. “During fiscal 2024, we drove strong same customer growth, extended our agreement with our largest customer, realized approximately $150 million in benefits from structural efficiency initiatives, significantly reduced shrink, lengthened the maturity on our term loan, and onboarded our new President and CFO, Matteo Tarditi.”
According to a release, the distributor’s net sales for Q4 increased 10 percent to $8.2 billion, growing 2.1 percent on a comparable 13-week basis. UNFI’s fourth quarter was marked by improving volume trends, with new business with existing customers and near-term efficiency initiatives leading to full-year performance at the upper end of outlook ranges for key financial metrics, a press release stated.
Driving its strategic growth, the company also advanced its network optimization through the consolidation of its Billings and Bismarck distribution centers. This move is expected to improve customer and supplier experience in the region through better technology access, a broader product assortment, and more efficient and effective service.
On top of all this, UNFI also introduced a three-year business plan and financial objectives focused on driving customer and supplier value, margin expansion, free cash flow generation, and deleveraging.
“We are also actioning key elements of our updated strategy that has resulted from our ongoing board- and management-led financial review, which we expect will drive accelerating performance and create sustainable value for our customers and suppliers,” Douglas continued. “Simultaneously, we are working to improve free cash flow generation and to reduce net leverage by optimizing our distribution center network, reducing the capital intensity of our business, and driving efficiencies across the organization. We expect these two elements of our strategy will work together to help us generate meaningful shareholder value.”
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