Coffee Service

Primo Water Q1 2021 earnings fall despite revenue gain

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May 10, 2021

Primo Water Corp., a provider of water direct to consumers and water filtration services in North America and Europe, as well as a provider of water dispensers, purified bottled water and self-service refill drinking water in the U.S. and Canada, increased revenue 1% from $474 million in Q1 2020 to $478 million in the quarter ending April 3, 2021, according to a press release.

The company's net loss improved from a $27.4 million loss in Q1 2020 to a $10.2 million loss in Q1 2021, while net loss per diluted share improved from a 19-cent loss in Q1 2020 to a 6-cent loss in Q1 2021.

The company's adjusted net income and adjusted net income per diluted share fell from $11.4 million and 8 cents per diluted share in Q1 2020 to $9.3 million and 6 cents per diluted share in Q1 2021.

• Revenue for water direct and water exchange declined 3% from $295.2 million to $287.6 million in the comparative quarters.
• Water refill and water filtration jumped 72% from $30.8 million to $53 million.
• Water dispensers rose 154% from $5.9 million to $15 million.
• "Other" water rose 2% from $55.4 million to $56.3 million.
• Revenue in North America increased 4% from $350.7 million to $365.5 million.
• Revenue for the rest of the world fell 9% to $113 million driven by lower revenue in commercial water direct customer base and coffee services.

The company's $478 million in revenue beat analyst expectations by $1.35 million, according to Seeking Alpha, while the non-GAAP EPS of negative 6 cents missed expectations by 8 cents and the GAAP EPS of negative 6 cents missed expectations by 2 cents.

Shares traded at $16.87 today against a 52-week range of $9.56-$17.76.

"Our first quarter results came in ahead of our expectations and position us well for the balance of 2021," CEO Tom Harrington said in the release. "Our strong results are impressive given we were cycling the effects of pantry-loading that we experienced during the early days of the pandemic. Our positive momentum heading into the second quarter, coupled with our progress against our key strategic initiatives, support our decision to increase our full year adjusted EBITDA outlook $10 million to between $380 million and $390 million."