Executive Officer. “In respect to pound volume growth at retail, our brands had mixed results according to IRi market data.Fisher recipe nut pound volume decreased by 21%, while pound volume for the recipe nut category declined by 4%. The decline inFisher recipe nut pound volume was attributable to lost distribution to private brand recipe nuts at a major customer as discussed above.Orchard Valley Harvest pound volume increased by 78% mainly from new item introductions and distribution gains, while pound volume for the produce category fell by 3%.Fisher snack nut pound volume increased by 15%, while pound volume for the snack nut category increased by 3%. The increase in pound volume forFisher snack nuts was attributable in part to our launch of theOven Roasted Never Fried product line.Southern Style Nuts pound volume declined slightly, while pound volume for the trail and snack mix category fell by 4%,” Mr. Sanfilippo stated. “It was a challenging quarter, especially forFisher recipe nuts and shipping costs. We implemented ourFisherrecipe nut holiday promotional and merchandising program in October, which is intended to allowFisher to compete against private brand recipe nuts more effectively. As we enter the harvest season, we anticipate significantly lower acquisition costs for pecans and walnuts, which is expected to put us in a strong position to drive volume growth forFisher recipe nuts through increased promotional pricing and merchandising activity. Finally, in the first quarter, we invested in a transportation management system and increased the size of our logistics department to make us less reliant on third party logistics providers. We believe these investments should allow us to manage shipping costs more effectively in future quarters,” Mr. Sanfilippo concluded.
The Company will host an investor conference call and webcast on Wednesday, October 31, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern (9:00 a.m. Central) to discuss these results. To participate in the call via telephone, dial1-844-536-5471 from the U.S. or1-614-999-9317 internationally and enter conference ID number 3397417. This call is being webcast by NASDAQ/OMX and can be accessed at the Company’s website atwww.jbssinc.com.
The Company will be presenting at the Southwest IDEAS Conference in Dallas on November 15, 2018 at 3:50 p.m. Central time, and the presentation webcast can be accessed at the conference website atwww.IDEASConferences.com.
Some of the statements in this release are forward-looking. These forward-looking statements may be generally identified by the use of forward-looking words and phrases such as “will”, “intends”, “may”, “believes”, “anticipates”, “should” and “expects” and are based on the Company’s current expectations or beliefs concerning future events and involve risks and uncertainties. Consequently, the Company’s actual results could differ materially. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or other factors that affect the subject of these statements, except where expressly required to do so by law. Among the factors that could cause results to differ materially from current expectations are: (i) the risks associated with our vertically integrated model with respect to pecans, peanuts and walnuts; (ii) sales activity for the Company’s products, such as a decline in sales to one or more key customers, a change in product mix to lower price products, a decline in sales of private brand products or changing consumer preferences; (iii) changes in the availability and costs of raw materials and the impact of fixed price commitments with customers; (iv) the ability to pass on price increases to customers if commodity costs rise and the potential for a negative impact on demand for, and sales of, our products from price increases; (v) the ability to measure and estimate bulk inventory, fluctuations in the value and quantity of the Company’s nut inventories due to fluctuations in the market prices of nuts and bulk inventory estimation adjustments, respectively; (vi) the Company’s ability to appropriately respond to, or lessen the negative impact of,
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