OAK BROOK, Ill., Feb. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE: THS) today reported fourth quarter earnings of$0.78 per fully diluted share compared to $0.61 per fully diluted share reported for the fourth quarter of last year. The Company reported that adjusted earnings per share increased 1.0% in the fourth quarter to $0.99 compared to $0.98 in the prior year.
Net sales for the fourth quarter totaled $903.5 million compared to $660.3 million last year, an increase of 36.8%, largely due to sales from acquisitions and volume/mix increases in the beverages (primarily single serve beverages) category. Partially offsetting this increase in net sales was unfavorable foreign exchange. Compared to last year, sales in the fourth quarter for the North American Retail Grocery segment increased 42.9%, sales for the Food Away From Home segment decreased 0.3% and sales for the Industrial and Export segment increased 44.6%.
"We were very disappointed with the softness in our fourth quarter results," said Sam K. Reed, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "First, a sharp and unexpected reduction in inventory from a large mass merchant customer across nearly all of our categories in the final weeks of December was the largest contributor to the setback. Second, year-end consumption of the snack nuts category for both branded and private label fell well short of consumer sales trends in the first nine months of 2014. And lastly, currency headwinds were an unforeseen challenge as the Canadian exchange rate dropped precipitously late in the period." View full report here.
