Cal-Maine Foods net income surges in FY 2014, 4Q 2014

Cal-Maine Foods achieved a net income of $31.5 million for the fourth quarter fiscal year 2014, a substantial improvement over the net loss of $3.8 million recorded during the fourth quarter of FY 2013. The largest egg producer in the United States also reported a large jump in net income for FY 2014, reaching $109.2 million, up from FY 2013’s net income of $50.4 million.
The fourth quarter and fiscal year ended May 31.
A significant reason for the surge in net income for both periods was that during the fourth quarter of 2013, Cal-Maine Foods incurred $17 million in expenses related to the settlement of antitrust litigation.
Cal-Maine net sales for FY 2014, 4Q 2014
For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, Cal-Maine Foods’ net sales were $371.6 million compared with net sales of $325.9 million for the fourth quarter a year ago.
For the fiscal year 2014, net sales were $1,440.9 million, compared with net sales of $1,288.1 million for fiscal 2013.
Commenting in a press release on the results for the fourth quarter and fiscal 2014, Dolph Baker, chairman, president and CEO of Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., said, “We are pleased with our financial and operating performance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 with sales up 14.0 percent over the same period a year ago. These results reflect both higher volumes and higher average selling prices compared with the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013. Total dozens produced increased 8.1 percent, total dozens sold increased by 2.5 percent, and our average selling price per dozen was up 12.0 percent over the same period last year.”
“Our operations continued to run well in fiscal 2014. We were able to benefit from lower and less volatile feed costs compared with the previous year. For fiscal 2014, our average feed costs were 49.3 centsper dozen, down 8.7 percent from fiscal 2013. Throughout our operations, our management team continued to execute on all the fundamental aspects of making Cal-Maine Foods an efficient, low-cost producer. We were pleased to report operating income of $146.1 million for fiscal 2014 compared with $59.6 million for fiscal 2013. Our expansion projects for our operations in Florida, Texas and Kentucky are on schedule, and we expect to benefit from the additional capacity and improved efficiencies in fiscal 2015 with less dependence on outside egg purchases.”
Cal-Maine achieves sales records in dollars, volume
Baker stated that for FY 2014, Cal-Maine Foods exceeded its previous year’s sales record with $1.4 billion in sales in fiscal 2014. The company also achieved the milestone of selling more than one billion dozen fresh eggs during FY 2014, a record for both the company and the global egg industry.
“These results reflect strong demand for shell eggs throughout the year from all the major market segments including retail, egg product and exports,” Baker said.
Specialty egg sales climbing
Baker reported that specialty eggs accounted for 17.2 percent of Cal-Maine’s total number of shell eggs sold and 24.3 percent of the company’s shell egg sales revenue for FY 2014.
Cal-Maine’s new venture with Hickman’s Egg Ranch, announced just prior to the release of the company’s quarterly and annual financial results, will help further Cal-Maine’s market position with specialty eggs, Baker said. The venture will be known as Southwest Specialty Eggs LLC.
 “Specialty egg sales have been an important area of strategic focus for Cal-Maine Foods. Our latest joint venture, Southwest Specialty Eggs LLC, will further expand our market reach in specialty egg sales in the southwestern United States. We expect specialty eggs, which have a higher retail selling price, will continue to gain market share over regular eggs as more consumers are willing to pay for these premium products. Overall, our average selling prices were up 4.7 percent in fiscal 2014, reflecting a higher percentage of specialty egg sales,” Baker said.