J & J Snack Foods reports Q1 EPS 52c, consensus 78c

Reports Q1 revenue $348.31, consensus $362.87M. Dan Fachner, J&J Snack Foods Chairman, President and CEO, commented, “J&J Snack Foods continues to execute on our long-term strategy while managing through a softer consumer environment. Fiscal first quarter net sales declined approximately 1%, in line with trends in the overall industry. Declines in consumer traffic and consumption at many of our customers impacted our sales in the quarter compared to a strong quarter last year. While we experienced softness across Food Service, we saw resilience in Retail and continued strong growth in Frozen Beverages with sales growing 1.6% and 8.5%, respectively. Despite overall softer sales, our ongoing focus on gross margin expansion resulted in a 130-basis point improvement, reflecting the positive impact of our strategy to grow higher margin core products, as well as continued gains in overall productivity. This resulted in healthy bottom-line growth, including a 20.6% increase in adjusted operating income and a 19.4% increase in adjusted EBITDA. “Food Service sales decreased 4.1% versus the prior year period, primarily reflecting reduced inventories of pies and cookies among certain customers during the holiday season, as well as a decline in Handhelds sales due to a contractual cost true-up agreement. These declines were partially offset by our Churros category, which grew 8.9%, as we continue to drive growth of this high-margin business. Retail segment sales increased 1.6%, as declines in Frozen Novelties and Biscuit sales were offset by sales growth across Soft Pretzels and Handhelds. Frozen Beverage segment posted an 8.5% increase in sales, driven by growth across all three sub-segments: beverage, maintenance, and machine sales.