SunOpta Announces Record Q3 Results

SunOpta Inc. (NasdaqGS: STKL) (Toronto: SOY.TO) announced record results for the third quarter of 2007.


The company says it achieved record revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2007, realizing its 40th consecutive quarter of increased revenue growth versus the same quarter in the previous year. (All amounts in US dollar)


Revenues in the quarter increased by 41.4% to $205,666,000 as compared to $145,463,000 in the third quarter of 2006, led by a 45.2% increase in revenues within the company’s vertically integrated natural and organic food operations.


Net earnings for the quarter increased 234.4% to $5,096,000 or $0.08 per diluted common share as compared to $1,524,000 or $0.03 per diluted common share for the same period last year. The company says these results were realized despite significant costs and investment spending within the Company’s healthy fruit snack business and SunOpta BioProcess Inc., and the unfavorable impact of the rising Canadian dollar on Canadian based overhead costs.


Operating income for the quarter increased 154.4% to $9,025,000 as compared to $3,547,000 in 2006.


For the nine months ended September 30, 2007, the company says it achieved record revenues of $597,083,000 versus $434,520,000 in the same period of the prior year, an increase of 37.4%. Net earnings for the same period increased 76.8% to $15,696,000 or $0.25 per diluted common share as compared to $8,879,000 or $0.15 per diluted common share for the same period in 2006.


Steve Bromley, President and Chief Executive Officer of SunOpta commented, `We are quite pleased with our third quarter results, driven by solid internal growth of over 20% in the quarter. We continue to see strong growth prospects within each of our operating segments and are positioning the Company to realize these opportunities. Last year we stated that our sunflower business would see a turnaround of $4,000,000 year over year and we are pleased to report that these results have actually increased by over $5,000,000 after just nine months. We expect that the significant investments being made within our healthy fruit snack business and SunOpta BioProcess Inc., which have impacted the third quarter operating results, are a wise investment for the long-term and will provide excellent returns. Based on our results to date, we are pleased to reconfirm our revenue guidance of $775,000,000 to $800,000,000 for fiscal 2007 as well as confirm our net earnings guidance in the range of $0.35 to $0.40 per share, albeit at the lower end of the range, after absorbing the previously mentioned investment spending in our fruit snack operations and SunOpta BioProcess Inc.’


About SunOpta Inc.


SunOpta Inc. focuses on integrated business models in the natural and organic food, supplements and health and beauty markets. The Company has three business units: the SunOpta Food Group, which specializes in sourcing, processing and distribution of natural and organic food products integrated from seed through packaged products; the Opta Minerals Inc. (Toronto: OPM.TO) (66.6% owned by SunOpta), a producer, distributor, and recycler of environmentally friendly industrial materials; and the SunOpta BioProcess Inc. which engineers and markets proprietary steam explosion technology systems for the pulp, bio-fuel and food processing industries. Each of these business units has proprietary products and services that give it a solid competitive advantage in its sector.

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