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Text: As Tekilamentioned, I'm Christine Cannella, vice president, investor relations with Fresh Del Monte Produce.
Joining me in today's discussion are Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman and chief executive officer; and Eduardo Bezerra, senior vice president and chief financial officer.
You may also visit the company's website at freshdelmonte.com for a copy of today's release as well as to register for future distribution.
In the first quarter of 2021, we delivered strong profits across all of our business segments while net sales were slightly lower year over year.
Gross profit increased 53% from last year's first quarter.
Net income increased 228% to $43 million or diluted earnings per share of $0.90, compared with net income of $30 million or diluted earnings per share of $0.27 a year ago.
We believe that these results reflect the resilience of our company and are a demonstration of the initiatives we implemented in 2020 to further strengthen our operating model and improve working capital.
I assume you all know what is happening in the global markets.
The structure of the economy has changed.
We recognize the new economic reality and market challenges we face.
Specifically, the inflationary pressure we are facing on all fronts which is forcing us to increase our prices.
We intend to continue to proactively manage and anticipate these challenges as we have done in the past by taking decisive actions to counterbalance any adverse conditions to our business.
As we move forward, we intend to continue to operate with agility so that we can quickly respond to market changes as they come.
What you see today is only the beginning of our potential.
We also dealt with rising inflationary pressures during the first quarter.
Now let's review our first quarter of 2021 results.
Net sales decreased $29.7 million or 3% to $1.88 billion, compared with the prior year period with favorable exchange rates benefiting net sales by $16 million.
The decrease was primarily attributable to lower net sales in our fresh and value-added and banana business segments.
Adjusted gross profit increased 39% to $107 million, and our adjusted gross profit margin increased to 10%, compared with 7% in the prior year period.
We benefited from increased profitability in our fresh and value-added business segment, partially offset by higher fruit production, procurement, and distribution costs.
However, I would like to point out that if you apply the adjusted gross profit margin for the fresh and value-added produce segment of 8.7% to the $19 million of net sales impacted by COVID-19 in this segment, we estimate we would have delivered an additional $1.7 million in adjusted gross profit.
Adjusted operating income increased 140% to $58 million compared with the prior year period, mostly driven by increased gross profit.
And adjusted net income increased 154% to $42 million compared with the prior year period.
We achieved a diluted earnings per share of $0.90, compared to diluted earnings per share of $0.27 in the prior year period.
Excluding nonoperational and nonrecurring items, we delivered adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.88, compared with adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.34 in the prior year period.
Adjusted EBITDA increased 61%, and adjusted EBITDA margin increased 300 basis points when compared with the prior year period.
Let me now turn to segment results, beginning with our fresh and value-added produce segment.
For the first quarter of 2021, net sales decreased $30 million or 5% compared with the prior year period.
The primary drivers of the variance were lower sales volumes of melons as a result of the hurricanes in Guatemala; the impact of COVID-19 to net sales in January and February in our fresh-cut vegetable and vegetable product lines; an increase in avocado volume, which was offset by lower per unit sales price that impacted the industry; an increase in pineapple volume in most of our regions; and an increase in net sales in our prepared food products line due to higher per unit sales prices.
For the quarter, adjusted gross profit in our fresh and value-added product segment increased 9% to $55 million, and adjusted gross profit margin increased 100 basis points.
During the quarter, we began to benefit from the actions we took in 2020 to optimize our operations, primarily in the following product lines: fresh-cut fruit, melon, avocados and our prepared food products.
Fresh-cut fruit margins recovered back to double digits.
Rationalization in our domestic melon operations and higher per unit sale prices helped offset the damage from the hurricanes.
Avocado gross profit margin doubled during the quarter and achieved the double digits.
Prepared food products margins achieved the high teens.
We also pursued volume expansion during the quarter in the following product lines: pineapple volume increased 22% and avocado volume increased 12%.
Gross profit in our non-tropical product line decreased primarily in rates as a result of damage caused by severe rainstorms to some of our farms in Chile, which resulted in a $3.1 million inventory write-off.
Our Mann Packing business was impacted by lower sales volume in our food service distribution channels, which drove higher per unit product costs.
Net sales in our banana segment decreased $9 million to $418 million while adjusted gross profit increased 93% or $23 million during the quarter, primarily driven by lower net sales in North America and the Middle East, mainly as a result of decreased sales volume, partially offset by strong demand in Asia.
Overall volume decreased 8%.
Pricing increased 7%, which offset an increase in production and procurement costs due to the impact of hurricanes Eta and Iota in Guatemala as well as inflationary pressure on cost of goods sold.
Now moving to selected financial data.
Selling, general, and administrative expenses decreased $4 million to $49 million, compared with $53 million in the prior year period.
The decrease was primarily due to cost-saving initiatives in our North America region that resulted in reduced promotional expenses and lower selling and marketing costs.
The foreign currency impact at the gross profit level for the first quarter was favorable by $13 million, compared with an unfavorable effect of $6 million in the prior year period.
Interest expense net for the first quarter at $5 million was in line with the prior year period.
The provision for income taxes was $11 million during the quarter, compared with the income tax of $300,000 in the prior year period.
The increase in the provision was due to -- sorry, the increase in the provision for income tax of $10.7 million is primarily due to increased earnings in certain jurisdictions.
During the quarter, we generated $47 million in cash flow from operating activities, compared to $2 million in the prior year period.
The increase was primarily attributable to higher net income and higher balances of accounts payable and accrued expenses, principally due to our optimization efforts associated with working capital.
As it relates to capital spending, we invested $34 million in the first quarter, compared with $17 million in the prior year period.
Our investments were mainly related to our new refrigerated container ships, one of which was received during the first quarter and expansion and improvements to facilities in North America and Asia.
As of the end of the quarter, we received cash proceeds of $42.4 million in connection with our asset sales under the asset optimization program of which approximately $40 million was received in 2020.
The gain during the first quarter of 2021, primarily related to a gain on the sale of a refrigerated vessel.
We believe we're on track to achieve the $100 million program by the first quarter of 2022.
We paid down our long-term debt by $8 million, resulting in a total debt balance of $534 million.
And based on our trailing 12 months, our total debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio stands at 2.4 times.
This concludes our financial review.

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fresh del monte produce q1 earnings per share $0.90.
q1 adjusted earnings per share $0.88.
q1 earnings per share $0.90.

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