MINNEAPOLIS — Nash Finch Co. here said Friday net income for the 12-week first-quarter that ended March 27 fell 44.9% to $7.9 million, while overall sales rose 3.5% to $1.2 billion.
Speaking with investors at a New York-based conference, Robert B. Dimond, chief financial officer, said the earnings decline was driven primarily by a non-cash gain in the year-ago quarter from the acquisition of three military distribution centers. Volume from those facilities in fiscal 2009 results included an extra month, equal to $59.4 million, or 2% of the total, he noted.
Within the company's wholesale business segment, food distribution revenues fell 3% to $583.8 million, due to declining sales to existing customers, the company noted; retail sales dropped 8% to $117.9 million, with comparable store sales down 3.7%. Volume from the company's military distribution business rose 16.5% to $468 million for the quarter; excluding the extra month's revenue from the three military facilities, sales for the quarter were down 1.8%, which Alec Covington, president and chief executive officer, said repreented “an improved trend” compared with the negative 3.8% reported in the fourth quarter.
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