Still why I love this stock..
SunOpta Announces 2003 Year End Results; Reports Record Revenues and Earnings
3/11/2004 4:51:16 PM
TORONTO, ONTARIO, Mar 11, 2004 (CCNMatthews via COMTEX) -- SunOpta Inc. (SunOpta or the Company) (STKL) (CA:SOY) today announced results for the year ended December 31, 2003. All amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars.
The Company achieved record revenues and earnings for the year ended December 31, 2003. Revenues in 2003 increased by 65% to $199,099,000 from $120,898,000 in 2002, led by an 80% increase in revenues within the Company's vertically integrated food operations, focused on the natural and organic foods markets. The Company's revenue growth of 65% was driven by internal growth of 26% and growth via acquisitions of 39%.
Net earnings for the year were a record $8,697,000 or $0.19 per basic common share compared to $3,766,000 or $0.09 per basic common share in 2002. The improvement in earnings is due to a number of factors including increased sales of bulk grains and specialty beans, increased sales of aseptic packaged soy milk products, increased sales of fiber based ingredients and the annualized impact of the 2002 and 2003 acquisitions of Opta Food Ingredients, Wild West Organic Harvest, Simply Organic and Kettle Valley Dried Fruit.
Revenues in the fourth quarter of 2003 were $54,663,000, a 63.5% increase over revenues in 2002 of $33,437,000, representing the Company's 25th consecutive quarter of record revenue growth over the same quarter in the previous year. Net earnings in the quarter were $3,137,000 or $0.06 per basic common share, an increase of $2,625,000 over the same period in 2002.
During the fourth quarter of 2003, the Company acquired Pro Organics Marketing Inc., a leading distributor of certified organic fresh foods in Canada, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, certain assets of SIGCO Sun Products Inc., a worldwide supplier of non-genetically modified sunflower products headquartered in Breckenridge, Minnesota, and Sonne Labs Inc. (Dakota Gourmet), a manufacturer of natural and organic convenience foods, located in Wahpeton, North Dakota. These acquisitions were competed late in the year and consequently had a minimal effect on 2003 results.
As a result of the combination of strong operating results and the equity offerings completed in August 2003, the Company is well positioned for future growth with working capital of $57,369,000 and total assets of $173,756,000. The debt to equity ratio at December 31, 2003 was 0.21:1 compared to 0.74:1 at December 31, 2002.
The Company has announced that it expects to achieve revenues of $275,000,000 in 2004, an increase of 38% versus 2002. The increase is based on a combination of continued internal growth and the impact of the food based acquisitions completed in the fourth quarter of 2003.
Jeremy N. Kendall, Chairman and CEO of SunOpta, commented that, "We are very pleased with the record results of the past year and our other accomplishments including the equity financing and the four excellent businesses that joined the SunOpta family in 2003. We will continue to leverage our financial resources in 2004 to take advantage of the growth trends that continue in the natural and organic food sector of the food industry." |
