Pressure from commodity costs, lower profits from ingredients and higher income taxes have hit quarterly earnings at US natural food group SunOpta.
The Canada-based company said yesterday (9 August) that its second-quarter net earnings declined 78.5% to US$4.4m in the three months to 2 July.
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The company reported a “continued strong performance” from its the international foods division and its Opta Minerals unit.
However, SunOpta said earnings from its grains and foods group fell due to “commodity market pressures” on its sunflower bsuiness, lower profits from ingredients after it lost a major customer earlier in the year and higher income taxes.
Nevertheless, during the quarter, revenue increased 24.3% to $290.7m, which SunOpta said was the “largest quarterly revenues from continuing operations in the company’s history”. Sales excluding the impact of the acquisitions of sunflower seed firm Dahlgren and cereal bar maker Edner, which SunOpta bought in late 2010, were up 13.2%.
For the first half of SunOpta’s financial year, earnings were down 62.2% to $9.5m, while revenue increased 22.4% to $551.7m.
Shares in the company were up 2.25% at the market’s close yesterday to $4.99 a share.
