B&G Foods has recorded impairments across a group of four brands, charges that helped push the US manufacturer deeper into the red last year.
The company booked charges of $320m it said were “related to intangible trademark assets” on its Green Giant, Victoria, Static Guard and McCann’s brands.
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B&G Foods said the charges reflected “partial impairments” of each brand and added: “Net sales and contributions to the company’s operating results for each of these brands have not met the company’s expectations.”
The group posted a net loss of $251.3m for 2024, versus one of $66.2m a year earlier.
It also took a $70.6m impairment charge in the first quarter for a reduction in goodwill within its Frozen & Vegetables reporting unit.
The company’s adjusted net income for fiscal 2024 was $55.7m, down from $73.9m in fiscal 2023.
In 2024, net sales dropped 6.3% to $1.93bn, driven by a decline in its base-business and the divestiture of the Green Giant US shelf-stable product line, which had generated $64.4m in sales in 2023.
Adjusted EBITDA was $295.4m, down 7.1% compared with the last year. As a percentage of net sales, adjusted EBITDA was 15.3% in 2024, slightly lower than 15.4% in 2023.
In the fourth quarter, the company’s net sales fell by 4.6% to $551.6m. It posted a net loss of $222.4m for the quarter, compared to a net income of $2.6m in the last three months of 2023.
B&G Foods president and CEO Casey Keller said: “B&G Foods’ fourth-quarter results were in line or slightly above expectations, with some improvement versus prior quarters.”
Looking ahead, B&G Foods projects its net sales for 2025 to range from $1.89bn to $1.95bn.
The company anticipates adjusted EBITDA of between $290m and $300m, with adjusted diluted earnings per share expected to fall between $0.65 and $0.75.
Keller added: “We expect first-half fiscal 2025 trends to continue to be soft, with sequential improvement in the second half of the year as we lap consumer purchasing changes following high inflation across the packaged foods industry.”
Robert Moskow, food and agribusiness equity analyst at investment banking group TD Cowen, said: “B&G Foods is still a work in progress with a portfolio of growth-challenged brands and a debt-laden balance sheet.
“Their frozen veg business (21% of sales) remains under strategic review, and they continue to describe as much as 10% of additional sales as candidates for divestiture. By our math, they will need to sell assets at a multiple above 7x to reduce leverage. However, it looks like it has been tough to find buyers.”
In May, B&G Foods announced it was considering divesting its frozen and canned vegetable businesses.
