For the first time in company history, High Liner Foods has rung up more than $1 billion in annual sales. The Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada-headquartered value added frozen seafood producer and marketer generated $1.051.6 billion in turnover during 2014, up by $104.3 million over 2013.
Results for the fourth quarter ending on January 3 were also positive, as sales rose by $16.2 million to $266.9 million, compared to $250.7 million during the same period in 2013. A quarterly dividend of $0.105 per share will be paid on March 16 to stockholders of record on February 25.
“Our two most recent acquisitions, American Pride and Atlantic Trading, helped bolster sales in 2014 by adding $150.8 million to sales compared to American Pride sales of $39.7 million in 2013,” said Henry Demone, chief executive officer. “Organic growth, however, was a challenge in our US foodservice business, and combined with significant increases in the cost of certain key species in 2014 that were not fully recovered in the year and a weaker Canadian dollar, adjusted EBITDA decreased in 2014 by $2.0 million [or 2.3%, to $83.3 million] compared to last year.”
The ceo continued: “Overall, good progress was made on our strategic goals in 2014, all of which are multi-year goals that will continue into 2015. In regards to our goal focused on achieving profitable growth, the integration of American Pride was successfully executed in 2014 and we were very pleased to announce the acquisition of Atlantic Trading in October. In 2014 we were successful in gaining momentum on our supply chain optimization goal in the second half of the year, and while, as expected, net savings were not realized in 2014, and we believe that $20 to $25 million in annual cost savings can be achieved related to this goal.”
Looking ahead, the company will continue to focus on enhancing profitability, as it is optimistic that market conditions will improve this year.
“To the extent our foodservice customers benefit from recent improvements in US consumer spending, partially fueled by lower gas prices, we could begin to see some improvement in organic growth in this part of our business,” said Demone.
High Liner Foods’ foodservice and institutional lines are distributed under the High Liner, Icelandic Seafood, FPI, Viking, Mirabel, Samband of Iceland and American Pride Seafood labels. It retail branded products are sold throughout the USA, Canada and Mexico under the High Liner, Fisher Boy, Mirabel, Sea Cuisine and C. Wirthy brand names at grocery and club stores.
