United Natural Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: UNFI), the largest natural foods distributor in the U.S., reported a three percent rise in second quarter profit on higher revenues.
Sales for Q2 2007, ended January 27, 2007, were $668.5 million, an increase of $67.5 million, or 11.2%, from the $601.1 million in the previous year. Net income rose to $10.9 million, or 25 cents per share, from $10.6 million, or 25 cents per share, in the prior year quarter.
Analysts expected earnings of 30 cents per share on sales of $682.8 million.
Operating expenses during the second quarter of fiscal 2007 were negatively impacted by approximately $2.2 million of losses related to the Company’s two Auburn, California facilities. In January 2007, the Company incurred a loss of $1.5 million associated with the sale of one of the facilities. It also incurred $0.4 million in fees related to the early termination of unused leased space at a facility in Minnesota, and recorded a related write-off of $0.3 million in abandoned leasehold improvements.
“Fiscal 2007 continues to be a strong year and we are quite pleased with our operating performance and financial results during the second quarter,” said Michael Funk, President and CEO. “Sales growth in our supermarket channel remained solid and we expect the super natural channel to realize increased sales growth with the number of new stores expected to open during 2007.”
UNFI also announced it is expanding its operations in the Pacific Northwest with the construction of a 237,000 square foot state-of-the-art distribution center in Ridgefield, Washington.
The distribution center is scheduled to commence operations in the late summer of 2007 and will serve as a regional distribution hub. UNFI has 16 distribution facilities throughout the US, consisting of an aggregate of 3.3 million square feet of space – the largest capacity of any distributor in the natural products industry.
United Natural Foods, Inc. carries and distributes more than 40,000 products to more than 18,000 customers nationwide. The Company serves a wide variety of retail formats including conventional supermarket chains, natural product superstores, independent retail operators and the food service channel. United Natural Foods, Inc. was ranked by Forbes in 2005 as one of the “Best Managed Companies in America,” ranked by Fortune in 2006 as one of its “Most Admired Companies,” and ranked by Business Ethics as one of its “100 Best Corporate Citizens for 2006.”
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