High Liner Foods has reported a US $6.5 million drop in sales for the 13-week third quarter that ended on October 3, 2015. Turnover amounted to 240.1 million, compared to $246.6 million during the same period a year ago. Net income decreased by $1.5 million (19.8%) to $6.1 million.
This followed a second quarter revenue decrease of $9.2 million, or 3.9%, to $226.3 million for the 13-week period ending on July 4, compared to $235.5 million generated in Q2 the year before. The reason for weaker sales is primarily due to buyer resistance to price increases and continued soft demand in the United States foodservice market.
Keith Decker, president and chief executive officer of the Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada-headquartered producer and marketer of value-added frozen seafood products, stated: “As expected, we have not yet realized the benefit of raw material cost savings, so previous raw material cost increases, along with the weaker Canadian dollar, continue to have a negative impact on financial performance in 2015 compared to last year.”
Revenues generated for the first three quarters of 2015 were down by $8.1 million (1%) to $776.6 million, compared to $784.7 million for the like 39-week period in 2014. Net income decreased by $2.1 million (8.5%) to $22.6 million, compared to $24.7 million during the first three quarters of the prior year.
“Despite ongoing challenges with demand, we will continue to focus on increasing sales volume in the remainder of 2015 to help achieve benefits related to our supply chain optimization initiatives and to improve earnings,” said Decker. “These efforts will continue to be supported by increased promotional activities and will be further assisted to the extent we realize lower seafood raw material prices, which we expect to begin in late 2015 and into 2016.”
