Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based Premium Brands Holdings Corporation posted record first-quarter revenues in 2021, surpassing CAD 1 billion (USD 827 million, EUR 680 million) in revenue for the period ending on 27 March, 2021.
That total represents a CAD 74.8 million (USD 61.8 million, EUR 50.9 million) increase over the same period in 2020, and a record for the first quarter for the company. In addition to revenue gains, the company posted a first-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, debt, and amortization (EBITDA) of CAD 82.5 million (USD 68.2 million, EUR 56.1 million), a 28.3 percent – or CAD 18.2 million (USD 15 million EUR 12.3 million) – increase over 2020.
"While we continue to face many pandemic related challenges, including the most recent one involving disruptions in global shipping networks, we are pleased to announce another quarter of record sales and earnings," Premium Brands President and CEO George Paleologou said in a release.
Another milestone, Paleologou said, is that the company’s Specialty Foods’ segment’s U.S.-based businesses now make up more than half of the company’s revenue.
In addition to the successes in specialty foods, Paleologou also mentioned the company’s purchase of Clearwater Seafoods, which it purchased a significant stake in in 2020 in a transaction valued at roughly CAD 1 billion (USD 827 million, EUR 680 million). Premium Brands, Paleologou said, is making progress on integrating the company into Premium Brands’ capabilities.
“We are making excellent progress in bringing them into our ecosystem and on the development of the many benefits and synergies expected from this transaction. It is still early days, but our optimism continues to grow on the value to be created by combining Clearwater's well managed, best-in-class operations and access to some of the world's top seafood resources, with our downstream, value-added and branding capabilities,” Paleologou said. “For the quarter, Clearwater's gross profit margin increased by 940 basis points reflecting several positive developments, including its leveraging of our resources and the broader trend of improving demand in the Asian and U.S. foodservice markets.”
During the first quarter, the company also completed its acquisition of Starboard Seafood. Premium Brands announced the purchase of the company in its fourth-quarter 2020 financial results. It also acquired Distribution Côte-Nord, and Confederation Freezers, according to its latest financial results.
Taken all together, Paleologou said he remains “very bullish” on the company meeting its goal of CAD 6 billion (USD 4.9 billion, EUR 4 billion) in sales and CAD 600 million (USD 496.6 million, EUR 408.5 million) in EBITDA by 2023.
"The major consumer trends that have been key drivers of our success over the last decade continue to strengthen and, in some cases, have been bolstered by the events of the past year,” he said. “This combined with the capital projects that we have either recently completed or are underway, as well as our full pipeline of acquisition opportunities, gives us great confidence that we will meet or exceed these.”
