CAL-MAINE Foods Inc. has reported 11% growth in sales in its fiscal 2015 third quarter due to increased demand for specialty eggs during the holiday season.

"Specialty egg volumes have increased throughout this fiscal year and were up 22.6% for the third quarter compared with the prior year," Cal-Maine chairman, president and chief executive officer Dolph Baker explained.

Furthermore, he said specialty egg sales accounted for 20.3% of dozen shell eggs sold and 26.9% of total shell egg sales revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2015, compared with 17.4% of dozen shell eggs sold and 23.7% of total shell egg sales revenue for the 2014 third quarter.

"We believe the strong performance of specialty eggs will continue to be a key driver of our growth as we capitalize on favorable consumer demand trends. We provide a wide variety of healthy choices that meet this demand," Baker said. "We will continue to make the appropriate investments to expand our production capabilities for specialty eggs and identify ways to further enhance our product mix."

For the quarter ended Feb. 28, Cal-Maine reported net income of $50.9 million and net sales of $437.6 million, compared with net income of $42.9 million and net sales of $395.5 million in the year-ago third quarter.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2015, net sales were $1.173 billion, compared with $1.069 billion for the prior-year period. The company reported net income of $115.1 million for the first nine months, compared with $77.7 million for the same period in fiscal 2014.

Baker said feed costs per dozen eggs were 9.1% lower in the first nine months of the current versus the previous fiscal year. As a result, operating income for the 2015 third quarter was $72.0 million, compared with $46.6 million for the 2014 third quarter.

Baker acknowledged that implementation of Proposition 2 in California on Jan. 1 did initially disrupt the market supply. However, prices have moderated, and the shell egg market in California seems to be striking a better balance of supply and demand as producers adjust to the new standards.

"Looking ahead, we will continue to monitor market conditions that could influence our business, including the changing situation in California as well as the national hen supply, and as always, we continue to closely watch the grain markets," Baker said.

Volume:87 Issue:13