With three snack brand acquisitions in the past nine months, B&G Foods, Inc. is now poised to purchase in other categories — unless the right offer comes along.
“I think everybody who owns a snack business wants to sell us their snack business,” said David Wenner, chief executive officer, during a July 18 call with financial analysts to discuss second-quarter earnings. “It would have to be an extremely compelling proposition for us to be interested in the snack business right now.”
The company acquired the TrueNorth brand of nut clusters in May and completed its $195 million transaction for Pirate Brands in July, topping off a snack portfolio that also includes the company’s October 2012 purchases of New York Style, the maker of Bagel Crisps, and Old London brands.
“Together, with the acquisition we completed last October and these two new acquisitions … we have built our snacking brands to an estimated annualized total net sales of $140 million to $150 million,” Mr. Wenner said. “We have a very full docket here bringing two product lines back into a respectable growth mode and continuing what has been a very, very good trend in the Pirate Brand. So, we have a lot to work on in the snacks right now as it is. As I say, that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t move on a very compelling proposition, but we’re going to be extremely selective.”
Grocery, he added, is a different story.
“We’re still very interested in buying things in grocery, but again, we’re very selective in general. It would have to be the right profile of business and fit the acquisition model that we’ve been executing for the last 15 years.”
Refinancing and acquisition costs caused B&G Foods to swing to a loss during the second quarter.
For the quarter ended June 29, the company had a loss of $1,433,000, which compared with income of $16,026,000, equal to 33c per share, during the same quarter of the previous year. Sales for the quarter were $160,882,000, up 8% from $148,612,000 during the same quarter of the previous year.
During the second quarter, the company issued $700 million of senior notes at an interest rate of 4.625%, and early in the third quarter increased its revolver capacity by $100 million, using the proceeds from the refinancing to retire its 7.625% senior notes, repay tranche B term loans and fund the Pirate Brands acquisition.
“We believe that by improving our debt profile, we are in a very strong position to continue to pursue accretive acquisitions,” Mr. Wenner said.
For the six months ended June 29, the company had income of $18,201,000, or 34c per share, down 45% from $32,804,000, or 68c per share, during the same period of the previous year. Sales for the six months were $322,076,000, up 5% from $305,951,000 during the same period of the previous year.
For the full fiscal year 2013, the company said it expects adjusted E.B.I.T.D.A. guidance to be in the range of $187 million to $191 million.
