OAK BROOK, Ill., May 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- TreeHouse Foods, Inc. today reported first quarter earnings of $0.41per fully diluted share compared to $0.38 per fully diluted share reported for the first quarter of last year. The Company reported adjusted earnings per share in the first quarter of $0.59 compared to $0.80 in the prior year, excluding the items described below.
The Company's 2015 first quarter results included two items noted below that affected the year-over-year quarterly comparison. The first item is a $0.16 per share loss on the foreign currency translation of intercompany notes. The second item is a $0.02 per share expense for acquisition, integration and related costs.
Net sales for the first quarter totaled $783.1 million compared to $618.9 million last year, an increase of 26.5%, due to sales from acquisitions. Partially offsetting the increase in net sales was unfavorable foreign exchange and pricing. Volume/mix was flat in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the first quarter of 2014. Compared to the first quarter of last year, sales in the first quarter of 2015 for the North American Retail Grocery segment increased 30.9%, sales for the Food Away From Home segment decreased 0.4% and sales for the Industrial and Export segment increased 31.6%.
Reported gross margins decreased to 19.5% in the first quarter this year from 21.5% in the first quarter of last year resulting from the impact of lower margin sales from recent acquisitions (accounting for 100 basis points of the reduction), a shift in legacy sales mix, reduced pricing, and unfavorable exchange rates on raw material purchases by the Company's Canadian operations.
Net income for the first quarter of 2015 totaled $17.9 million compared to $14.3 million in the previous year. View the full report here.
