John B. Sanfilippo & Son 2026 Q1 Earnings Call - 59% EPS Growth Amid Commodity Inflation and Consumer Shifts

Jeffrey Sanfilippo, Chief Executive Officer, John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS): Good morning everyone and welcome to our 2026 first quarter earnings conference call. Thank you for joining us. On the call with me today is Frank Pellegrino, our CFO, and Jasper Sanfilippo, our COO. We may make some forward-looking statements today. Statements are based on our current expectations and they involve certain risks and uncertainties. Factors that could negatively impact results are explained in the various SEC filings that we have made, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q. We encourage you to refer to the filings to learn more about these risks and uncertainties that are inherent in our business. We began the fiscal year with strong momentum, continuing to execute our long-range plan with discipline and focus.

In this quarter we delivered a 59% improvement in diluted earnings per share, underscoring the strength of our strategy, improvements in our commercial ingredients and contract manufacturing businesses, and our relentless focus on generating operational efficiency throughout our organization. We have seen directional improvements in sales volume over the past three quarters, signaling progress and stabilizing our overall demand. These results were achieved in a challenging snack food environment as consumer behavior continues to evolve and in response to broader macroeconomic shifts. Our achievements reflect the hard work and commitment of our employees whose contributions remain vital to our continued success. Yesterday, the Company’s Board of Directors approved a special cash dividend of $1 per share on all issued and outstanding shares of common stock of the company and $1 per share on all issued and outstanding shares of Class A common stock.

The special dividend will return approximately $11.7 million to company stockholders and will be paid on December 30, 2025 to stockholders of record at the close of business on December 1, 2025. Our financial performance over the last several quarters provided us the opportunity to declare this special dividend which reinforces our goal of creating long-term stockholder value through the responsible use of cash. This special dividend would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of all JBSS team members during our busy holiday season. Price inflation and consumer sentiment is a challenge for the snack category today. Across many food segments, we faced significant nut commodity cost increases over the past year.

In addition to high prices for cocoa, our teams have worked hard to mitigate price increases and offered our customers several options to manage costs, which included pack size adjustments, formula changes, and alternative ingredient considerations. Some retailers were proactive and made changes to their portfolio. Our teams also worked hard to drive additional costs out of our operations and supply chain and manage our inventory levels. Demand planning becomes challenging when consumer behavior changes and markets become volatile, so we are prioritizing resources to work with our key retail partners on better forecasting and order planning. For example, we experienced a soft back-to-school period for the snack bar category in our first quarter.

Our Insights team in Sales and Marketing are working with our customers to understand the dynamics of the bar category and adjusting promotional and volume plans based on current trends to manage inventory levels and future production schedules. This time last year, the company’s profitability was impacted by a one-time concession to a snack bar customer due to capacity constraints and service levels. We overcame those constraints, and our service levels this quarter exceeded expectations. We have systems in place now to mitigate supply risk for high peak consumption periods. It is the busy season for our nut and trail mix business. Our Sales, Marketing, and Operations teams have done a great job building our business for the upcoming holiday season, and we are in full swing with shipments to customers.

On our call last year, I mentioned we expanded our manufacturing footprint by leasing a 446,000 square foot facility in Elgin, Illinois. This investment provided the company with additional space in our Elgin facility to install new production lines for our snack and protein bar business. The new lines create extraordinary opportunities to innovate our bar platform and enter new snack, energy, and protein bar segments. Installation is in progress, and we are on schedule to begin manufacturing by the end of this fiscal year. As we have shared on previous calls, the inflationary environment has changed consumer behavior, and we have seen them shift to more value-focused retailers such as club stores. Our teams have worked hard to expand our retail distribution in club and alternative retail channels with innovative products and pack sizes.

Our OVH brand has gained several rotations at a key club retailer, and the rollout of some of our new OVH snack items is gaining traction with retailers across the country. I’m so proud of our R&D team for creating amazing, innovative snack products and building a pipeline for future growth, and a call out to our sales teams for building collaborative partnerships with several grocery retailers. Many other food company CEOs have shared on their management calls, one of our important priorities is to stay relevant with Gen Z and mainstream consumers. JBSS is doing this by delivering product and portfolio innovation paired with strong value. Our Marketing Insights team is tracking purchasing trends, price point elasticity, new product launches, and consumer sentiment and behavior. These insights guide our innovation pipeline, category management recommendations, and our branded advertising expenditures as we’ve shifted our investments to more digital marketing.

I’ll now turn the call over to Frank Pellegrino, our CFO, to provide additional information on our financial performance for our first fiscal quarter.

Frank Pellegrino, Chief Financial Officer, John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS): Thank you, Jeffrey. Starting with the income statement, net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 increased by 8.1% to $298.7 million compared to net sales of $276.2 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2025. The increase in net sales was due to an 8.9% increase in the weighted average sales price per pound, which is partially offset by a 0.7% decline in sales volume, which is defined as pounds sold to customers. The increase in the weighted average sales price primarily resulted from significantly higher commodity acquisition costs across all major tree nuts. Sales volume declined across all major product types except for peanuts, walnuts, and pecans, all of which experienced volume growth in the quarter. Sales volume decreased 5.1% in the consumer distribution channel, primarily due to a 3.2% decrease in private brand sales volume.

Approximately half of the decrease was due to the discontinuation of peanut butter at a mass merchandiser. The remaining private brand sales volume decrease was nearly evenly split between nut and trail mix and bars, nut and trail mix. Sales volume was negatively impacted by higher retail prices and reduced promotional activity, which was partially offset by new business and expanded distribution to three existing customers. Bar sales volume declined due to our strategic decision to reduce sales to one grocery retailer and lost distribution to another, which was partially offset by growth at a mass merchandiser and at a current customer. Lost distribution of Orchard Valley Harvest at a major customer in the non-food sector also contributed to the overall decline in the consumer distribution channel.

Sales volume increased 12.8% in the commercial ingredients distribution channel, mainly driven by new business with two customers, increased peanut butter volume in existing food service customers, and increased sales of peanut crushing stock to peanut oil processors. Sales volume increased 18.4% in the contract manufacturing distribution channel, primarily due to increased granola sales volume and increased snack nut sales to another customer added during the second quarter of the prior year. These increases were partially offset by lower peanut and peanut bar sales volume to a major customer. Gross profit increased by $7.6 million, or 16.2%, to $54.1 million compared to the first quarter of last year, driven by higher net sales during the quarter with selling prices more closely aligned with commodity acquisition costs compared to the first quarter of the prior year.

Additionally, the prior year first quarter included a one-time price concession to a bar customer that did not recur this quarter. Gross profit margin increased to 18.1% of net sales compared to 16.9% for the first quarter of fiscal 2025 due to the reasons previously mentioned. Total operating expenses for the first quarter decreased $2.5 million compared to the first quarter of the prior year, primarily driven by lower marketing and insights funding, reduced third-party warehouse costs, lower third-party recruitment expenses, and decreased freight costs. These decreases were partially offset by an increase in incentive compensation expense. Total operating expenses as a percentage of net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 decreased to 9.1% from 10.7% in the prior comparable quarter due to the reasons previously mentioned and a higher net sales base.

Interest expense was $1 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 compared to $0.5 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2025 due to higher average debt levels. Net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 was $18.7 million, or $1.59 per diluted share, compared to $11.7 million, or $1 per diluted share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2025. Now taking a look at inventory, the total value of inventories on hand at the end of the current first quarter increased $40.2 million, or 20.6%, compared to the total value of inventories on hand at the end of the prior year comparable quarter. The increase was due to higher commodity acquisition costs across all major tree nuts as well as greater on-hand quantities of finished goods due to lower than forecasted back-to-school demand for bars and in preparation for anticipated holiday seasonal demand.

The weighted average cost per pound of broad nut and dried fruit increased 24.8% year over year, mainly due to higher commodity acquisition costs for all major tree nuts. Please refer to our Form 10-Q, which was filed yesterday, for additional details regarding financial performance for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Before I turn the call over to Jeffrey, please note that we will be presenting at the Southwest Ideas Conference in Dallas on November 19.

Conference Call Operator: Now I will turn the call over.

Frank Pellegrino, Chief Financial Officer, John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS): To Jeffrey to discuss category trends.

Jeffrey Sanfilippo, Chief Executive Officer, John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS): Thanks, Frank, for the financial updates. Success requires smart strategies and the right business model for sustainable growth. It also requires a talented and committed group of leaders across the organization. We have all those elements of success here at JBSS. I’ll now share some category and brand results with you for the quarter. All the market information I’ll be referring to is Circana Panel data and for today it is for the period ending September 28, 2020. When I refer to Q1, I’m referring to 13 weeks of the quarter ending September 28, 2025. References to changes in volume are versus the corresponding period one year ago. For pricing commentary, we’re using Circana MULO plus scan data and we’re referring to average price per pound. We’re using the nut, trail mix and bar syndicated views of the category as defined by Circana.

In the first quarter, we continued to see modest growth in the broader snack aisle as defined by Circana. Volume and dollars were up 2% and 5%, respectively. This is consistent with the performance we saw last quarter. In Q1, the snack nut and trail mix category was down 3% in pounds, which is a decline from last quarter. Dollars in Q1 were up 5%, which is consistent with Q4 performance. Price increases drove the dollar growth. Snack nut prices rose 8% with increases across all nut types. Prices for trail mixes rose 6% this year. Snack nut and trail mix performed worse in the category with pound shipments down 6%. This was due primarily to some lost distribution and less promotional activity. Our Southern Style Nuts brand pound shipments decreased by 7%, driven by some reduction in distribution at a national club retailer.

Orchard Valley Harvest brand, which primarily plays in trail mix, was down 44% in pound shipments, driven by discontinuation at a national specialty retailer. Commodity increases, including cocoa and some tree nuts, are resulting in higher prices for Orchard Valley Harvest. We continue to focus on innovation and renovation opportunities to mitigate this commodity pressure. Our private label snack and trail mix shipments performed slightly weaker than the category with pound shipments down 4% versus last year due to softness in mass. As prices rise due to commodity pressures, we’re actively working on cost mitigation solutions with our retail partners. Now turning to recipe nut category. In Q1, the recipe category was down 2% in pounds and up 19% in dollars. Similar to Q4’s performance, recipe category experienced a 21% price increase, driven particularly by walnuts.

Although all nut types have experienced price increases, our Fisher recipe nut shipments were down 6% in Q1, with volume softness tied to significantly increased costs of our commodities. In closing, as we look ahead, we will continue to build on the momentum we have generated in this quarter by staying focused on three key areas: growing our sales volume, delivering best-in-class service and value to our customers, and driving ongoing improvements in profitability. These efforts are foundational to our strategy and will enable us to deliver long-term value to our shareholders. Moving forward, other priorities continue to be optimizing commodity acquisition costs and selling price alignment, driving category growth for snack and trail mix, increasing our snack and nutrition bar distribution, and identifying additional operational efficiencies. No doubt we are facing ongoing headwinds with shifts in consumer behavior, impacts of tariffs, and commodity inflation.

Despite these headwinds, I’m confident we have the people, the processes, the brands, the expertise, and the financial strength to be agile and successfully navigate our company through these volatile times to grow our business. I’d like to thank our amazing and hardworking team for their dedication. All of us have a steadfast commitment to develop business plans to create shareholder value and provide relevant, profitable, value-added products and services to our customers and consumers. Our mission is to provide great-tasting, innovative products that bring joy, nourish people, and protect the planet. We appreciate your participation in the call and thank you for your interest in our company. We will now open the call to questions. Lisa, please cue up the first question.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. We also ask that you please wait for your name and company to be announced before proceeding with the question. One moment for the first question. Our first question will be coming from the line of Hamed Corsand of BWS Financial. Your line is open.

Frank Pellegrino, Chief Financial Officer, John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS): Hi, good morning. Talking about the private brand bar business, the decline you saw, is that because of consumer behavior or because of the customer, the mass merchants and retailers and so forth?

Jeffrey Sanfilippo, Chief Executive Officer, John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS): Thanks for the question. It really was driven by consumer behavior. We had a great overall strong back to school volume, but we did see some declines in one of the key bar segments, which was fruit and grain that we didn’t anticipate. Overall consumption for the bar category was strong. We had General Mills who came back online with their Quaker Chewy granola bars, which were not in the market last year or in smaller portions of the market due to their previous recall. They were back in full force this period this year. In addition to that, we did see strong growth with our private brand bar category.

Frank Pellegrino, Chief Financial Officer, John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS): Okay. As far as the dividend’s concerned, are you expected to just pay that out of cash flow or is this coming quarter going to be high in cash flow or are you going to be going into debt for it? It’s going to be mainly from cash flow. Okay. Finally, you were talking about some increase in demand. Certain nuts. Is that coming from just the consumer preferring because they’re cheaper alternatives versus the other nut categories?

Jeffrey Sanfilippo, Chief Executive Officer, John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS): Typically we would see if you have price inflation, you’ll see a shift from higher cost nuts, for example, cashews or deluxe mixed nuts, to something of a cheaper trail mix or peanuts. We’ve seen a little bit of that shift this year with the kind of macro environment, but we also did see some consumers leaving the snack nut category because of the higher per pound prices versus other cheaper snack alternatives like potato chips, for example. The good news is overall, the total snack category, we’re seeing it stabilize. We’re getting away from some of the declines that we saw in the overall snack category. We’re hopeful that we’ll get some of those consumers back into the snack nut category as well.

Frank Pellegrino, Chief Financial Officer, John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS): Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Conference Call Operator: Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press 11 on your telephone. At this time, I’m not seeing any further questions, and I would like to turn the call over to Jeffrey Sanfilippo, Chief Executive Officer, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Jeffrey Sanfilippo, Chief Executive Officer, John B. Sanfilippo & Son (JBSS): Thanks, Lisa. I apologize for cutting you off at the very beginning of the earnings call. Thanks for your patience. I want to thank everyone for your interest in John B. Sanfilippo & Son. This concludes the call for our first quarter of fiscal 2026 operating results. Have a great Halloween weekend.

Conference Call Operator: This does conclude today’s program. You may all disconnect.