TreeHouse Foods posts first-quarter loss

TreeHouse Foods, the new owner of ConAgra Foods' private-label food business, posted a first-quarter loss primarily due to acquisition and integration costs and expenses related to restructuring and facility consolidation.

The Oak Brook, Ill., company, which operates a former ConAgra Foods plant in northeast Cedar Rapids, posted a net loss of $3.3 million, or 6 cents per share, for the quarter that ended March 31, compared with a net profit of $17.8 million, or 42 cents per share, for the same period last year.

Net sales soared 62.2 percent in the first quarter to $1.3 billion from $783.1 million in the same period of 2015. TreeHouse Foods attributed the sharp increase to the inclusion of business from the ConAgra private brands acquisition, partially offset by lower volume and product mix, primarily in the company's industrial and export segment, and unfavorable Canadian foreign exchange.

'I am very pleased with the progress our teams are making integrating the private brands business,” said Sam Reed, TreeHouse Foods chairman, president and CEO, in a news release. 'Our integration activities are on track and on budget as a result of the strong collaboration of our teams during the transition.”

TreeHouse Foods acquired ConAgra Foods' private brands segment Feb. 1 for $2.7 billion in cash plus transaction expenses. The sale included a network of 32 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada and Italy.

ConAgra bought the Ralcorp Holdings private-label business for about $5 billion in January 2013. It struggled to integrate it with the rest of its branded product operations.

With the ConAgra purchase, TreeHouse Foods - formed a decade ago in a spinoff from Dean Foods - became the largest United States manufacturer of store-branded groceries.