Berry Plastics Q1 Profit Rises On Higher Sales - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Berry Plastics Group Inc. (BERY) reported net income for the first quarter of $13 million or $0.11 per share, up from $6 million or $0.05 per share in the year-ago period. Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the latest quarter were $0.27 per share.

Net sales for the quarter rose 7 percent to $1.22 billion from $1.14 billion in the year-ago period.

The increase in net sales was primarily attributed to net sales from businesses acquired by the company in the last twelve months as well as increased selling prices due to higher material costs and non-resin related cost inflation. These were partially offset by soft customer demand.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.26 per share for the quarter on revenues of $1.23 billion. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Jon Rich, Chairman and CEO of Berry Plastics, said, "We will continue to focus on our four key strategic initiatives including our primary goal of reducing our overall debt leverage by 0.5x per year. We are reaffirming our fiscal 2015 adjusted free cash flow guidance of $320 million assuming no impact from resin cost changes."