United Natural Foods today (10 December) booked a jump in first-quarter income, boosted by lower fuel costs and changes to the group’s product mix.


Net income during the quarter ended 31 October rose 17.2% to US$15.5m, the natural and speciality food group said.


Sales increased 2.4%, rising to $884.8m, while gross margin improved 80 bps to 18.6% thanks to lower fuel costs and a shift to higher margin products.


Looking to the remainder of the year, president and CEO Steven Spinner said that the company expects revenue to rise 2.5-5% over 2009, to a range of $3.54bn-3.63bn.


“During the first quarter, we successfully secured new conventional supermarket business as a direct result of our strategic expansion into speciality foods and products. We expect that this business will begin to ship during the first calendar quarter of 2010,” Spinner added.

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“Additionally, we continue to gain momentum with our combined natural, organic and speciality product offerings, and are poised to open our newly announced Lancaster, Texas distribution facility in August.

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