STATEN ISLAND, NY, U.S. Coffee Holding Co. has announced its operating results for the three months ended January 31, 2016. Net sales totaled $22,805,397 for the three months ended January 31, 2016, a decrease of $15,600,582, or 40.62%, from $38,405,979 for the three months ended January 31, 2015.
The decrease in net sales reflects lower coffee prices during the quarter and our reduced wholesale transactions with Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. (“GMCR”) of approximately $15,541,000.
Cost of sales for the three months ended January 31, 2016 was $20,154,348, or 88.38% of net sales, as compared to $36,484,535, or 95.0% of net sales, for the three months ended January 31, 2015.
Cost of sales consists primarily of the cost of green coffee and packaging materials and realized and unrealized gains or losses on hedging activity. The decrease in cost of sales reflects lower commodity prices during the quarter and our reduced wholesale transactions with GMCR.
Gross profit for the three months ended January 31, 2016 was $2,651,049, an increase of $729,605 from $1,921,444 for the three months ended January 31, 2015. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales increased to 11.62% for the three months ended January 31, 2016 from 5.0% for the three months ended January 31, 2015.
The increase in gross profits was due to improved margins on our wholesale and roasted business as well as a decrease in our losses quarter to quarter on our hedging operations.
Total operating expenses increased by $21,718 to $1,840,810 for the three months ended January 31, 2016 from $1,819,092 for the three months ended January 31, 2015.
The increase was primarily the result of an increase of $10,603, or 0.6%, to $1,676,960 in selling and administrative expenses for the three months ended January 31, 2016 from $1,666,357 for the three months ended January 31, 2015.
The Company had net income of $439,569 or $0.07 per share basic and diluted, for the three months ended January 31, 2016 compared to net income of $71,801, or $0.01 per share basic and diluted for the three months ended January 31, 2015. The increase in net income was due primarily to the reasons described above.
“Despite a severely depressed commodity price backdrop along with a significant decline in sales volume to our largest green coffee wholesale customer, we still managed to deliver our third consecutive quarter of positive earnings results. We achieved these results through growth in our three key business areas.
We experienced an increase in poundage sold in our specialty green coffee business but in terms of dollars, our sales were lower by $564,000 due to low commodity pricing as the coffee market was down over 30% year over year.
Sales of our private label coffees were up by 4.5% in terms of cases and by the same amount in their dollar equivalent. Our flagship brand, Café Caribe, showed a 10% increase in case sales versus the first quarter of 2015, as additional distribution in the Midwest and Texas markets improved these overall results.
With the coffee market stabilizing at current levels, and what we believe is the end of a 26 month decline in which coffee prices dropped from $2.25 to a low of $1.11 per pound, we believe that we will see continued increases in both case sales and green coffee poundage sold but at a higher dollar equivalency.
Increased sales combined with improving margins should provide us with a positive headwind for the first time in several quarters,” said Andrew Gordon President and Chief Executive Officer of Coffee Holding Co., Inc.
Mr. Gordon continued, “Our business remains healthy and we will look for additional ways to continue to improve our margins in addition to growing our already diverse customer base.
Although we are experiencing a downturn in revenues from our largest green coffee wholesale customer, we do have contractual arrangements with that customer through calendar 2017 and we believe we will continue to maintain this arrangement for the foreseeable future even if not to the same levels of concentration as in previous years.
We do not anticipate this change to materially affect our ability to generate a healthy level of profitability in our overall business model.”
