NORTHLAKE, Texas, May 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Farmer Bros. Co. (NASDAQ: FARM) (the “Company”) today reported financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2021.

Third Quarter Fiscal 2021 Highlights:

Business Update

  • Successfully completed key initiatives within its supply chain optimization strategy, including:
    • Doubled capacity at the Northlake, Texas facility;
    • Ended production at the aged Houston, Texas facility; and
    • Opened a new West Coast distribution facility in Rialto, California;
  • Negotiated new credit facilities, effectively increasing borrowing capacity and flexibility while lowering overall borrowing cost;
  • Achieved notable improvement in March 2021 DSD sales compared to January and February 2021 months; and
  • Seeing strongest DSD sales levels since the start of the pandemic with average weekly DSD sales in the month of April 2021 down approximately 27% compared to pre-COVID levels.

Financial Results

  • Net sales were $93.2 million, a decrease of $36.0 million, or 27.9%, from the prior year period, primarily due to the impact of COVID-19;
  • Gross margin decreased to 25.6% from 29.4% in the prior year period;
    • Continued improvement trend in gross margin each quarter of fiscal 2021;
  • Net loss was $13.7 million compared to net loss of $39.8 million in the prior year period; and
  • Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $0.8 million compared to income of $6.6 million in the prior year period.*
  • As of March 31, 2021, total debt outstanding was $88.0 million and cash and cash equivalents was $8.5 million compared to $122.0 million and $60.0 million, respectively, as of June 30, 2020.

(*Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, is reconciled to its corresponding GAAP measure at the end of this press release.)

Deverl Maserang, President & CEO, commented, “As the nation continues to recover from the pandemic and, more recently, severe weather throughout the Central U.S., relative performance in our more impacted DSD business continues to show improvements from pre-COVID levels. At the same time, we are seeing early benefits from our focus on our five key turnaround strategies, particularly in the form of considerable and scalable network efficiencies that will be seen more fully in our results as sales continue to improve. March results were the best we’ve seen since the pandemic began, and we expect trends will continue to rebound as certain markets begin to more fully open and as certain parts of our business, such as healthcare and lodging, show continued recovery. Additionally, our new credit facility that we executed in April will give us improved borrowing costs and greater ability to leverage our collateral and operational plans, while allowing us to focus more fully on accelerating growth and innovation throughout the organization.”

Third Quarter Fiscal 2021 Results:

Selected Financial Data

The selected financial data presented below under the captions “Income statement data,” “Operating data” and “Other data” summarizes certain performance measures for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 (unaudited).

Three Months Ended March 31, Nine Months Ended March 31,
2021 2020 2021 2020
(In thousands, except per share data)
Income statement data:
Net sales $ 93,152 $ 129,139 $ 294,993 $ 420,237
Gross margin 25.6 % 29.4 % 24.6 % 29.2 %
Loss from operations $ (10,395 ) $ (45,169 ) $ (32,004 ) $ (29,407 )
Net loss $ (13,684 ) $ (39,777 ) $ (37,680 ) (27,369 )
Net loss available to common stockholders per common share-diluted $ (0.78 ) $ (2.32 ) $ (2.17 ) $ (1.62 )
Operating data:
Total green Coffee pounds sold 18,026 25,678 60,366 80,995
Sold through DSD 5,336 8,354 15,522 25,625
Sold through Direct Ship 12,690 17,324 44,844 55,370
EBITDA(1) $ (4,800 )