Vending

Utz Brands lifts Q4 and FY 2021 sales and earnings

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March 3, 2022

Utz Brands Inc. improved its Q4 and FY 2021 sales and earnings over the prior year, according to an earnings release. Highlights include:

• Net sales in the 13-week fourth quarter ending Jan. 2, 2022 increased 22.2% to $300.9 million compared to $246.3 million in the 14-week fourth quarter of 2020. The company's fourth quarter 2020 results benefited from the impact of the 53rd week in fiscal year 2020 and contributed approximately $16 million in net sales. Q4 2021 net sales on a comparable 13-week basis increased 30.6%.
• The increase in net sales for the fourth quarter of 2021 was driven by acquisitions and organic net sales growth. Organic net sales growth was driven by favorable price/mix of 6% and volume gains of 2.9%, partially offset by the continued shift to independent operators and the resulting increase in sales discounts associated with that undermined net sales growth by 1.5%
• Net loss improved from $87.5 million to $16.2 million in the comparative quarters.
• Adjusted net income decreased 37.3% from $25.5 million to $16 million.
• Basic earnings per share improved from a $1.32 loss to a 10-cent loss in the comparative quarters.
• Adjusted earnings per share were 11 cents in Q4 2021.
• For the full year, sales rose 22.4% from $964.3 million in 2020 to $1.18 billion in 2021.
• Net income improved from a $104.5 million loss in 2020 to an $8 million gain in 2021.

Shares traded at $14.70 today against a 52-week range of $13.72-$30.09.

The $300.9 million in quarterly revenue beat analyst expectations by $3.24 million, while the non-GAAP EPS of 11 cents missed expectations by 4 cents, according to Seeking Alpha.

"Our fourth-quarter results reflect this trade-off with organic net sales growth accelerating meaningfully versus previous quarters, but earnings being impacted by higher than anticipated industry-wide supply chain costs. Importantly, we took significant pricing actions in 2021, as seen in our building net price realization improvements throughout each quarter, and this trend has continued through year-to-date 2022," CEO Dylan Lissette said in the press release. "These pricing actions, along with our productivity programs, give us confidence that we will be able to offset the continuing high inflation as we exit 2022 and into 2023."

For fiscal 2022, the company expects total net sales growth of approximately 7%-10%, and organic net sales growth of approximately 4%-6%, which is above its long-term growth algorithm of 3%-4%.