Generic avocados

California-based avocado and value-added foods specialist Calavo has reported on a strong set of results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2015 year, with Revenues, gross margin, net income and earnings per share all rising to new record levels.

For the three months ended 30 April 2015, net income advanced to US$8.5m, equal to US$0.49 per diluted share, up from from the US$1.6m, or US$0.09 per diluted share, in the same quarter last year.

Revenues for the most recent quarter advanced by US$26.7m, or 13.7 per cent, to reach a record US$221.6m, which compares with revenues of US$194.9m in the prior year’s second quarter.

“In each of its three business units and by every metric, Calavo turned in an outstanding showing in the second fiscal quarter,' said chairman, president and CEO Lee Cole. 'Double-digit top-line growth was paced by revenue gains in our Fresh and RFG business segments. Total gross margin increased US$4.1m, translating to an approximately 70 basis point year-over-year gain. This was fueled by gains across all three business segments, most significantly Calavo Foods, which did an outstanding job managing fruit and production costs.

“Fresh business segment operations saw substantially higher avocado volume, increasing by nearly 20 per cent over the same quarter last year,' he continued. 'This upward trend line in volume is reflective of the expanding consumer demand for fresh avocados and consistent with our previous forecasts for industry growth this year.'