PROVIDENCE – United Natural Foods Inc. reported a loss of $21 million in the company’s fiscal third quarter that ended April 27, following a profit of $7 million a year ago, the company said Wednesday.
The organic and specialty food distributor reported a loss of 34 cents per diluted share. Quarterly revenue totaled $7.5 billion, same as the year prior. Revenue fell short of Wall Street expectations. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment research expected $7.56 billion.
“We delivered another quarter in line with our fiscal 2024 plan,” said CEO J. Alexander “Sandy” Miller Douglas. “This progress includes significant cost reduction actions and supply chain efficiencies, and we see opportunity to drive further improvement across these areas.
"We are beginning to see tangible benefits to our financial performance ... and are focused on driving short- and long-term improvement by optimizing controllable variables in our new plan," he said. "We expect our updated strategy to generate free cash flow approaching $100 million in fiscal 2025 and stable and dependable profit and cash flow growth, with improving returns on capital and declining net leverage on a multi-year basis."
UNFI revenue channels for the fiscal third quarter:
- The company’s sales to chains totaled $3 billion, a decrease of 1.2% year over year.
- Sales to independent retailers totaled $1.8 billion, a 3.1% decrease year over year.
- Sales to “supernatural” stores, including Whole Foods, totaled $1.7 billion, an increase of 5.3% year over year.
- Retail sales totaled $571 million, a decrease of 4.5% year over year.
On May 22., UNFI extended its wholesale distribution relationship with Whole Foods Market until May 2032.
A significant portion of UNFI’s revenue comes through its distribution deal with Whole Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc.
United Natural expects full-year results to range from a loss of 20 cents per share to earnings of 20 cents per share, with revenue in the range of $30.5 million to $31 million.
The company also announced in its third quarter SEC filing Wednesday that it was eliminating its chief operating officer position.
Erin Horvath, who was named the company’s chief operating officer in March 2023 as part of its “Fuel the Future" strategy, will step down on June 14, according to the filing.
Horvath joined UNFI in October 2022 after more than 17 years in senior leadership roles with AmerisourceBergen Corp., a global pharmaceutical wholesale company.
(UPDATE: Adds elimination of chief operating officer in 13th, 14th and 15th paragraphs)
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.