Net sales also were stronger, rising 15% to $303,311,000 from $264,080,000.
“Our third-quarter results demonstrate continued business strength and solid fundamentals, particularly in light of the robust comparable quarter we reported in the year-ago period,” said Lawrence J. Blanford, president and chief executive officer. “Our Keurig Single Cup Brewing system continues to revolutionize the way North Americans prepare and consume their single-serve beverages and our proven ability to grow consumer awareness and demand for the system has enabled us to deliver extraordinary results over the past five years.
“As we become larger, however, our sales growth trajectory will understandably moderate from hyper-growth to a level more in-line with other successful growth businesses. Based upon our current analysis of business fundamentals and the single-serve opportunity, we believe we will deliver annual sales growth in the range of 15% to 20% with annual earnings growth in the mid-teens over the longer term.”
G.M.C.R. attributed 89% of consolidated net sales during the third quarter to the Keurig brewing system, single-serve packs and Keurig-related accessories, with the remainder of net sales consisting primarily of sales of bagged coffee and sales from the office coffee services business.
Net sales from single-serve packs totaled $638 million, up 153% from the same period in fiscal 2011.
The company and its licensed partners sold approximately 1.4 million brewers during the third quarter, according to G.M.C.R. This figure compared with about 1.5 million brewers sold during the second quarter.
Net income in the nine months ended June 23 was $270,741,000, or $1.75 per share on the common stock, up from $124,132,000, or 86c per share, in the same period a year ago. Net sales in the nine months rose 50% to $2,912,462,000 from $1,939,016,000.
Green Mountain reduced its fiscal 2012 sales guidance to $3.79 billion to $3.84 billion from the earlier forecast of between $3.8 billion to $4 billion. The full-year earnings-per-share projection was cut to $2.21 to $2.26 per share from between $2.40 to $2.50 per share.
