Net sales for the second quarter - ended 31 March 2004 - was $37.6 million, up 23.1 per cent from $30.6 million for the same quarter of 2003. Net income for the quarter was up 18.2 per cent, from $3.5 million the previous year, to $4.2 million.
Net sales for the company's first half were $70.8 million, a 19 per cent increase in comparrison to the $59.5 million recorded for the previous year. Net income was $7.3 million, a 19.3 per cent rise when compared to the $6.1 million earned a year earlier for the same six month period.
"We are pleased to report record sales and operating income, which reflect strong contributions from the June 2003 acquisitions of Nature's Life and Arizona Health Foods, as well as ongoing improvements in our overall business. We continue to focus on leveraging our marketing and operational infrastructures as we integrate these acquisitions," said Nutraceutical's CEO Bill Gay.
Nutraceutical, listed as one of Forbes' top 200 small companies, markets the Solaray, KAL, NaturalMax and VegLife brands. It also makes bulk materials for use in its own products and for sale to other manufacturers and marketers in the nutritional supplement industry under the trade names Monarch Nutritional Laboratories and Great Basin Botanicals.
The company bought Arizona Health Foods and the supplement marketer Nature's Life for an aggregate purchase price of $15.0 million last year. Nutraceutical purchased Arizona Health Foods chain (11 stores), through its subsidiary Fresh Vitamins for around $3.5 million, joining its other chains The Real Food Company and Thom's Natural Foods.
The acquisitions have helped the firm become one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of branded nutritional supplements for health food stores.
"We have focused and will continue to focus on new product development, synergistic acquisitions, internal growth, cost management and creating shareholder value. We remain positive about our business strategy and look forward to the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead," said Gay.
On Friday Nutraceutical announced that it had entered a deal to buy 'substantially all of the operating assets' of Colorado firm Natural Balance for $9.0 million. The company, that had sales of $10 million in 2003, manufactures and markets branded products, primarily through health and natural food stores.
The product line, launched in 1984, include Cobra, Colon Clenz, Ultra Colon Clenz, Ultra Diet Pep, and Super Flex Back and Joint Formulas.
Nutraceutical International claims to distribute one of the broadest branded product lines in the industry with more than 3,000 SKUs, including 600 sold internationally.