Maple Leaf Foods reports $47.7M first-quarter profit

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. says it earned a profit of $47.7 million in its latest quarter as an improvement in its meat protein group helped its revenue edge higher.

The food processing company says the profit amounted to 38 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $3.7 million or three cents per diluted share in the first three months of 2020.

Maple Leaf says its most recent quarter included a net gain of $26.7 million from non-cash fair value changes in biological assets and derivative contracts compared with a loss of $36.7 million in the same quarter last year.

On an adjusted basis, Maple Leaf says it earned 26 cents per share for the quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 21 cents per share a year ago.

Sales for the quarter totalled $1.05 billion, up from $1.02 billion in the same quarter last year.

The company's meat protein group sales totalled $1.01 billion, up from $981.4 million a year ago, while the plant protein group sales amounted to $42.6 million, down from $46.3 million in the first quarter of 2020.