Americold Swings to Q2 Loss
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Refrigerated warehouse operator Americold Realty Trust saw revenue rise in the second quarter but swung to a loss for the period because of disruptions in the global food supply chain.
The Atlanta-based company posted a loss of $13.4 million in the second quarter. That compared with a profit of $32.7 million in the same period a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share represented a loss of 5 cents a share compared with a profit of 16 cents a year earlier.
Operating income fell 59.5% to $22.9 million from $56.5 million.
Boehler
Revenue rose 35.7% to $654.7 million from $482.5 million in the second quarter of 2020.
“The global food supply chain continues to be impacted by the ongoing effects of COVID, especially limitations on production due to disruptions and challenges in the labor market,” Americold CEO Fred Boehler said in an Aug. 5 news release. “While we anticipate these issues will improve in the coming quarters, it will limit near-term performance, which will result in our 2021 results being softer than originally anticipated.”
Boehler said the company’s food manufacturing clients are working to return to pre-COVID production and inventory levels.
“We expect a gradual recovery, but based on feedback from our customers, we do not expect to get back to normalized inventory levels until mid-2022,” he said.
The company’s second-quarter financial performance includes seeing its global warehouse segment revenue increase 35.3% to $503.7 million. Net operating income in the segment, a financial measure used to analyze the profitability of income-generating real estate investments, increased 20.2% to $144.4 million. Americold’s global warehouse segment same-store revenue increased 2.1% but was flat on a constant currency basis.
The company continues to make acquisitions.
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Earlier this month, it closed on the purchase of St. Louis-based Coldco for $20.5 million. It also agreed to acquire Newark (N.J.) Facility Management for $376.5 million in a deal expected to close in September. Overseas, Amercold is purchasing Lago Cold Stores in Brisbane, Australia, for A$106.4 million.
“While we cannot control the current macro environment,” Boehler said, “we continue to invest to strengthen our market leadership position and to create meaningful sustained value over the coming years for stakeholders.”
The company ended the quarter with 246 facilities. Americold is the world’s largest operator of temperature-controlled warehouses and has 1.4 billion cubic feet of refrigerated storage.
Americold ranks No. 25 on the Transport Topics Top 50 list of largest logistics companies in North America.
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