A “supportive” economic landscape helped push High Liner Foods’ third-quarter sales to CAD 161.7 million, up 12 percent last year, the Nova Scotia-based supplier reported on Wednesday.
The company’s operating earnings also increased to CAD 12.9 million, up from CAD 12.5 million in 2010, the result of higher sales volumes, partially offset by higher seafood and other input costs.
“Our U.S. operations were strong across both the retail and food service channels, with the positive addition from the Viking acquisition complementing core organic growth,” said High Liner Foods President and CEO Henry Demone. “Sales volume and revenue growth in our Canadian operations was positive overall continuing the strong year-to-date results in food service and the turnaround in retail seen in the second quarter. Our new product innovations, cost-reduction strategies, recovery of stock option expense and the positive effect of the stronger Canadian dollar on our cost of sales helped to drive our strong results into the second half of 2011.”
“Higher raw material costs from the prior quarter resulted in higher cost of inventory for sale in the third quarter. Although seafood costs have remained high reducing our results, we do not expect to see an additional material increase to the end of the year,” he added.
Demone said he expects the momentum to carry over into 2012. “We look to continued sales expansion and distribution growth with an ongoing focus on cost-reduction initiatives as we strive to deliver strong financial results,” he said.
