Flowers Foods records net income of US$53M in Q1 2025
According to Ryals McMullian, chairman and chief executive officer, tariffs are burdening consumers who are already feeling the pinch of rising living expenses and are concerned about their own financial status as well as the unpredictability of the US economy.
USA – Flowers Foods has reported that for the 16-week first quarter ended April 19, net income fell 27% to US$53M, equal to 25¢ per share on the common stock, from just over US$73M, or 34¢ per share, in the same period a year ago.
Flowers attributed the decrease primarily to lower sales, increased SD&A costs, and higher interest costs, partially offset by lowering ingredient costs.
From US$80.3M, or 38¢ per share, to US$73.7M, or 35¢ per share, adjusted net income fell 8.2% in the previous year.
According to Flowers, adjusted EPS was reduced by 2¢ as a result of the Simple Mills transaction closing in late February. Flowers’ adjusted EPS for the first quarter was predicted by analysts to be 37¢ on average.
After declining 2.7% in volume and 0.3% in pricing/mix, first-quarter net sales fell 1.4% to US$1.55B from US$1.58B over the same 16-week period last year.
Steve Kinsey, chief financial officer, mostly ascribed the pricing/mix decline to increasing promotional activity in branded retail, while the reduced volume was largely related to declines in traditional loaf bread and cake. A 1.6% increase in net sales, or US$24.3M, was attributed to Simple Mills.
In the first quarter, branded retail sales fell 0.4% to US$1.01B due to 1.9% volume and 0.9% pricing/mix decreases, while Simple Mills contributed 2.4% increase.
Non-retail sales decreased 3.3% to US$543M, while pricing/mix increased by 0.4% and volume decreased 3.7%.
Flowers reported that its commercial cake retail sales went down 6.1% in dollars and 5.1% in units, while its fresh packaged bread retail sales decreased 2.3% in dollars and 2.5% in units.
Citing a slack first quarter characterized by category weakness and a larger-than-expected potential impact from tariffs, Flowers Foods Inc. began fiscal 2025 by reducing its full-year guidance.
Flowers has reduced its earlier estimate of adjusted diluted profits per share from US$1.05 to US$1.15 for the 53-week fiscal year 2025.
Adjusted diluted EPS, excluding Simple Mills, is anticipated to range from US$1.13 to US$1.22, as opposed to the previous range of US$1.18 to US$1.28.
In contrast to its previous projection of 5.9% to 7.5% growth to between US$5.4B and US$5.49B, Flowers now projects fiscal 2025 net sales to climb 3.8% to 5.7% to between US$5.3B and US$5.4B.
In contrast to its previous stand-alone estimate of US$5.18B to US$5.26B on growth of 1.5% to 3%, the business anticipates net sales of US$5.08B to US$5.17B, down 0.5% to up 1.3% from the previous year, excluding Simple Mills.
Furthermore, Flowers reduced its estimate of Simple Mills’ partial-year impact in fiscal 2025, which was earlier predicted to be a net loss of 7¢ to 4¢ in adjusted diluted EPS.
From an initial estimate of US$223M to US$230M, the business now projects Simple Mills’ net sales contribution to be between US$218M and US$225M.
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