This is what you might call ...STRONG revenue growth for a company..
SunOpta Announces Third Quarter Results
Wednesday November 5, 4:30 pm ET
Reports Record Third Quarter Revenues and Earnings
``Nine Months' Revenues up 65%, Nine Months' Earnings up 71%''
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 5, 2003--SunOpta Inc. (SunOpta) (Nasdaq:STKL - News; TSX:SOY - News) today announced results for the third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2003. All amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars.
The Company achieved record revenues and earnings for the three months ended September 30, 2003, realizing its 24th consecutive quarter of record revenue growth over the same quarter in the previous year. Revenues in the quarter increased by 54% to $50,384,000 from $32,800,000 in the third quarter of the prior year. These results were led by a 68% increase in revenues within the Company's vertically integrated natural and organic food operations, driven by a combination of internal growth and acquisitions. For the nine months ended September 30, 2003, revenues increased 65% to $144,436,000 compared to $87,461,000 in the prior year.
Net earnings in the third quarter were $2,100,000 or $0.05 per basic common share compared to $1,527,000 or $0.04 per basic common share in the third quarter of 2002. For the nine months ended September 30, 2003 net earnings are a record $5,560,000 or $0.13 per basic common share, an increase of 71% over 2002 results of $3,254,000, or $0.08 per basic common share. The increase over the prior year in both the quarter and year to date, were due to a number of factors including increased sales of bulk grains and specialty beans, increased sales of aseptic packaged soy milk products and the impact of the acquisitions of Opta Food Ingredients, Wild West Organic Harvest, Simply Organic and Kettle Valley Dried Fruit. 2002 figures also include the one-time recognition of certain tax loss carry-forwards of $600,000. Excluding this recovery, earnings in the third quarter of 2003 would have increased by 127% over the same period in 2002.
As a result of the combination of strong operating results and the equity offering completed in August, the Company is well positioned for future growth with working capital of $66,030,000 and total assets of $157,910,000. The debt to equity ratio at September 30, 2003 was 0.19:1 compared to 0.47:1 at June 30, 2003 and 0.74:1 at December 31, 2002.
Jeremy N. Kendall, Chairman and CEO of SunOpta Inc., commented that, "We are very pleased by the continued strong performance of our operations resulting in record revenues and net earnings in the first nine months of 2003. The recently announced acquisitions of Pro Organics, SIGCO Sun Products and Dakota Gourmet, in addition to being great fits with our vertically integrated natural and organic foods model, will serve to expand the range of healthy products offerings to our customers. As a result of these acquisitions and the performance of our base operations we are raising our 2003 revenue guidance from $175,000,000 to approximately $195,000,000 to $200,000,000." |
