United Natural Foods Inc (NASDAQ:UNFI) saw its shares rise in premarket trade after releasing a mixed bag of full year results on Wednesday.
In premarket, its shares rose 6.56% at US$39.65.
The distributor said that its full year earnings for the year ending July 29, saw its net sales come in at US$9.27bln, up 9.5% from the year before, but coming just below analysts’ hopes of US$9.3bn.
Net income however outshone consensus of US$2.55, coming in at US$2.56 per share.
The company said it is expecting net sales for 2018 to hit US$9.63bn to US$9.81bn, with earnings per share expected at US$2.97 to US$2.77.
Whole Foods sale to Amazon offers opportunities
The results come weeks after its largest customer, Whole Foods Market Inc., closed its US$13.7bn sale to Amazon.com Inc. (NYSE:AMZN), which is also a United Natural Foods client.
United Natural Foods has been Whole Foods' primary distributor for 19 years, and its current contract expires on Sept. 28, 2025. Whole Foods accounted for 35% of United Natural Foods' 2016 revenue - its largest customer.
"I am really excited about the opportunities I believe this combination brings to UNFI...[which] is well-positioned" to continue serving both companies, United Natural Foods CEO Steven Spinner said on a call with analysts.
"Initiatives around e-commerce capabilities will be a major focus of our growth" going forward, he said, with Amazon and Whole Foods driving United Natural Foods' growth in both the online and brick-and-mortar channels.
Spinner added that "Whole Foods-Amazon is committed to very specific purchase minimums through the rest of the contract," which was not changed after the deal was announced.