Juice-maker Sun-Rype Products Ltd. (TSX:SFR), of which billionaire Jim Pattison owns 48.6%, has reported its first quarterly profit in a year but warned that dwindling demand for shelf-stable juices could affect the company’s future.
Sun-Rype generated $39 million in sales in 2012’s first quarter of compared with $35.5 million in the same period a year ago. That was good enough to generate a profit of $1.4 million – the company’s first profit since the first quarter of 2011 when it generated $400,000 in profit.
Management credited the boosted sales and profit primarily to a reporting period that was one week longer than 2011’s first quarter.
Sun-Rype also warned about future business growth.
“Market data indicates that sales in the shelf-stable juice category, in which the company derives approximately 60% of its sales, are in decline,” the company said in a press release. “It is unclear whether these declines are permanent.”
However, consumer data gatherer Nielsen reported late last year that this pattern appears to be turning around.
Nielsen tracked pre-packaged juices that carried universal product codes (UPC) and found that dollar sales of total juices and drinks in the U.S. rose 2.1% to US$10.71 billion in the year that ended June 11, 2011
Neilsen noted that although this performance contrasts with a cycle of dollar sales declines during the two previous years, by 2.6% and 2.1% respectively, the category remains below the US$11 billion that it posted in the year that ended in 2008.
