TreeHouse Lifts Earnings Forecast
January 14 2016 - 5:30PM
Dow Jones News
TreeHouse Foods Inc., which expects to close its deal soon for
ConAgra Foods Inc.'s private-label business, raised its earnings
forecast for 2015 but said sales declined in its latest quarter on
foreign-exchange pressures and weaker coffee pricing.
Treehouse said it expects to report earnings, excluding special
items, of $3.14 to $3.17 a share for 2015. In November, it had
forecast $3 to $3.15 a share in earnings.
For its recently ended fourth quarter, Treehouse expects to
report that sales fell 4% to a range of $860 million to $870
million. Analysts were expecting $877 million in revenue for the
quarter, according to Thomson Reuters.
Treehouse said it continues to be pressured by lower coffee
prices and unfavorable Canadian foreign exchange.
It expects its gross margin to improve by 1.5 percentage points,
in part due to lower commodity costs.
TreeHouse will report full results for the quarter on Feb.
11.
TreeHouse said it expects to close on its acquisition of
Conagra's private-label business in the first quarter. For the full
2016 year, it is expecting earnings of $2.95 to $3.10 a share.
Analysts had forecast $3.26 a share in adjusted earnings.
TreeHouse struck the $2.7 billion deal with ConAgra in November,
a bet that will more than double its annual sales and make
TreeHouse the biggest U.S. maker of store-branded groceries. The
deal comes at a time when competition for shelf space is stiff
while growth for conventional packaged foods remains sluggish.
Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 14, 2016 17:15 ET (22:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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