John B. Sanfilippo & Son Q4 Revenue Down

It was a challenging fiscal year fourth quarter for John B. Sanfilippo & Son as the company reported a drop in net sales for the quarter ended June 29.

Net sales were down 9.1% to $234.2 million. Excluding the estimated impact of the extra week in the prior year fourth quarter, net sales decreased by approximately 2.1%, company officials said. Gross profit in the quarter was down 2.6% while diluted earnings per share was off 16%.

Sales of the company’s private brand products were down 4.7%, which was driven by the extra week in the fourth quarter of the prior year, partially offset by new private brand peanut butter and nutrition bar business at a mass retailer. Excluding the estimated impact of the extra week, private brand sales volume grew by approximately 2.6%.

The company’s branded products division saw sales decline 15.4%. Major factors in the drop in sales were a 29.1% decrease in the sales volume of Fisher snack nuts due to decreased promotional activity at two major customers, a 26.5% decrease in volume for Southern Style Nuts due to reduced promotional activity at a current club customer and the sales volume associated with the extra week in the fourth quarter of the prior fiscal year. Excluding the estimated impact of such extra week, branded sales volume decreased by 8.9%.

“We also achieved an important milestone towards our goal of diversifying our product offerings during the second half of the fiscal year,” said Jeffrey T. Sanfilippo, CEO. “We launched a new product line of private brand nutrition bars and sold over $4.2 million of this bar product to a number of our key retail partners. Our nutrition bars have been well received by our retail partners and their customers. We have great momentum as we expect to continue to grow distribution and gain additional private brand nutrition bar customers in subsequent quarters.”

For the full fiscal year, net sales were up 4.6% to $999.7 million. The increase was primarily attributable to a 6.5% increase in the weighted average selling price per pound, which was partially offset by a 1.8% decrease in sales volume. Excluding the estimated impact of the extra week in the prior year fourth quarter, net sales increased by 6.6%.

Gross profit margin for the year increased slightly to 21.2% from 20.9% and diluted earnings per share increased 1.3%.