STATEN ISLAND, NY--(Marketwired - Jan 26, 2016) - Coffee Holding Co., Inc. today announced its operating results for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2015:
Net sales totaled $118,153,541 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2015, an increase of $9,290,444, or 8.53%, from $108,863,097 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014. The increase in net sales reflects a combination of increased sales of green and roasted coffee.
Cost of sales for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2015 was $112,436,831, or 95.2% of net sales, as compared to $93,334,118, or 85.7% of net sales, for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014. 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 increase in cost of sales reflects approximately $5.5 million net loss, due to losses substantially incurred in the second quarter of fiscal 2015 resulting from the liquidation of many of our previously entered hedging positions as we implemented our plan to scale back our use of hedging and short term trading of coffee futures and options contracts.
Gross profit for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2015 was $5,716,710, a decrease of $9,812,269 from $15,528,979 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales decreased to 4.8% for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2015 from 14.3% for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014. The decrease in our margins reflects net losses substantially incurred in the second quarter of fiscal 2015 resulting from the liquidation of many of our previously entered hedging positions as we implemented our plan to scale back our use of hedging and short term trading of coffee futures and options contracts and a decrease in commodity pricing period over period.
Total operating expenses increased by $126,577 to $7,654,029 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2015 from $7,527,452 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014. Selling and administrative expenses increased $132,692, or 1.9%, to $7,000,744 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2015 from $6,868,052 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014. Officers' salary decreased by $6,115 or 1% to $653,285 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2015 from $659,400 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014.
The Company had a net loss of $(1,413,228) or $(0.23) per share basic and diluted, for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2015 compared to net income of $4,967,535, or $0.78 per share basic and diluted for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014. The decrease in net income was due primarily to the reasons described above.
"It was a mixed year in terms of our results," stated Andrew Gordon, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "Year over year, we increased our revenues by 9% despite a two year low in green coffee prices and a 12% reduction in poundage sold to our largest green coffee customer. We experienced a net loss of $(0.23) per share for the year, however, as part of our long-term strategic growth plan introduced in April, we significantly reduced our hedging and trading activities during the year to focus on our core operations and to smooth out our earning results quarter over quarter. From a bottom line perspective, these activities led to a trading loss during the year of $0.88 per share, the majority of which was realized in the second quarter and offset a $0.65 share profit from our day to day operations."
"I believe our business is headed in the right direction as the seeds have been planted to cultivate future growth in all three of our major business areas, branded and private label roasted coffee sales and wholesale gourmet green coffee distribution," continued Mr. Gordon. "Our Café Caribe Spanish espresso coffee continued to increase in unit sales as additional distribution in the Northeast and Texas markets bode well for continued growth in the immediate future. In addition, Wal-Mart has approved us as a new vendor and we expect to begin shipping Café Caribe to Wal-Mart sometime in the second quarter of this calendar year. Although commodity prices continue to struggle, we sold over 50 million pounds for the second consecutive year, as well as added eight new private labels to our current customer base. Our China and tea initiatives have not fully added to both revenues and profits as quickly as we would have liked, but we believe both initiatives have a solid foundation and will eventually prove to be catalysts for growth. Lastly, we have continued to expand our gross margins as we saw a three point improvement in the fourth quarter in our business and we anticipate this trend will continue into 2016 as well. Going forward, we will continue to execute our business strategy which we believe will increase stockholder value." Full report.
