Coffee Holding Co., Inc. Reports Year End Results for Fiscal Year Ending October 31, 2021

CoffeeNetwork (New York) - Coffee Holding Co., Inc. (Nasdaq: JVA) today announced its operating results for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021:

Net sales totaled $63,922,402 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021, a decrease of $10,413,413, or 14%, from $74,335,815 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020. The decrease in net sales was due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic which caused many of the Company’s green coffee customers who service the restaurant and food service industry, as well as its customers in the food service space to either close or suspend their business operations during the period resulting in lost revenues from that segment of the Company’s customer base.

Cost of sales for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021 was $47,901,126, or 75% of net sales, as compared to $61,256,926, or 82% of net sales, for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020. The decrease in cost of sales was due to the Company’s decreased sales and its hedging of green coffee costs, partially offset by higher packaging costs due to increases in materials, most notably steel for the Company’s cans.

Gross profit for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021 was $16,021,276, an increase of $2,942,387 from $13,078,889 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales increased to 25% for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021 from 18% for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020. The increase in gross profits was attributable to increased margins on the Company’s roasted and branded products and green coffee sales in the last part of the year, partially due to the movement of lower cost green coffee inventory built up in previous quarters, which was partially offset by higher packaging costs due to increases in materials.

Total operating expenses increased by $671,914 to $14,576,121 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021 from $13,904,207 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020. Selling and administrative expenses increased $740,121, or 6%, to $13,963,328 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021 from $13,223,207 for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020.

“Fiscal year 2021 presented both opportunities and challenges for our company. While coffee prices traded at ten-year highs during the fourth quarter of calendar year 2021, we were able to take advantage of our favorable green coffee inventory position to record $0.06 per share in earnings in our fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, compared to a loss of $0.07 per share in our fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020. For the fiscal year 2021, we earned $0.22 per share, compared to a loss of $0.02 per share for the fiscal year 2020. EBITDA for the fiscal year 2021 was approximately $3.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal year 2021 was approximately $4.2 million.

“After years of depressingly low coffee prices, this year saw a return to a more traditional coffee market, characterized by wide swings in prices on a weekly basis and an increase in trading volumes with heightened volatility. We believe the higher coffee prices, partly caused by dry weather and a July frost in Brazil, will remain in the near-term, as the market recalibrates the change in the fundamentals of world supply and demand,” said Andrew Gordon, President & CEO of the Company.

“Although higher coffee prices proved to be beneficial to us during the second half of fiscal 2021 as a result of our ability to manage and control our green coffee inventory costs, we were not immune to the same factors impacting costs and the overall economy, including supply chain and inflationary pressures. Our costs for packaging supplies, most notably for the cans we use for our roasted coffee products, saw a dramatic increase due to the increase in the price of steel. Freight also remained a challenge as costs to ship our roasted products increased between approximately 30-40% for many locations compared to fiscal 2020. Fortunately, we were able to pass off a percentage of these cost increases to many of our customers; but the net result negatively impacted our profitability. However, since more than 50% of our total business is the sale of green coffee to smaller and medium sized roasters, we believe the current increases in coffee prices and the value of our current inventory should more than offset the cost increases which remain outside of our control, as confirmed by our increase in gross margin of seven basis points during fiscal 2021, thus providing us with a strong positive tailwind heading into fiscal 2022,” continued Mr. Gordon.

“Other factors which negatively impacted our profits in fiscal 2021 were a non-cash charge of approximately $759,000 related to our employee stock option program, legal expenses of approximately $200,000 incurred as a result of defending two class action lawsuits brought against us and our customers. We continue to believe these cases have no merit. In September 2021, one of these cases was dismissed with prejudice, and the other case is pending. We anticipate the remaining costs for the defense of the lawsuits and the stock option plan should be substantially lower in 2022. Additionally, during our fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, we wrote down obsolete packaging in an amount equal to approximately $80,000 for unused labels and other outdated package supplies.

“Another factor which negatively impacted our fiscal 2021 results was a write down of equipment used in our Steep & Brew subsidiary of approximately $193,000 as we shut down operations in Madison, Wisconsin and disposed of the remaining equipment. The write down was the difference between the funds we received in the disposition of the equipment and the cost of the equipment on our balance sheet. Further, we were required to take an approximately $540,000 (net of taxes) impairment charge due to write downs of trademark and trade names related to our Steep & Brew subsidiary. The combined net effect of all of the above mentioned write downs was an approximately $1.1 million, or $0.17 per share, of charges on our net profit for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. We believe with the Wisconsin facility fully closed, we should see a significant reduction in our operating costs in fiscal 2022 compared to fiscal 2021, which should have a positively impact on our net income,” stated Mr. Gordon.

“As for the overall health of our business, we have finally started to record recent positive month to month sales comparisons after several years of decline. Although sales for the year were down by approximately $10.0 million, a significant portion of this decline could be attributed to our Steep & Brew subsidiary which saw a decline in sales of over approximately $4.0 million in fiscal 2021. Despite another year passing with virtually no face to face or in person meetings with current and potential new customers, combined with not attending any trade shows, we were still able to gain additional distribution for our Café Caribe products and were also awarded the private label business for three large wholesale accounts. We began shipping to one of these customers in July and the other two customers will begin shipping during the first half of 2022. While our initial entry into the CBD market has been disappointing, we continue to believe once the economy fully reopens, along with continued changes in the regulatory environment surrounding the CBD industry, the potential for sales of our CBD coffee offerings will greatly improve. However, we believe that the lack of face to face meetings and not attending trade shows has hindered our ability to introduce a new concept product like CBD coffee into the market. In addition, sales of our Café Caribe and Harmony Bay CBD cups online have not made up for the lack of sales we had originally anticipated at traditional retail establishments.

“Finally, as we generated a profit this past fiscal year, I am pleased to announce that our board of directors approved a special dividend, our first in over ten years, of $0.07 per share of our outstanding common stock. The dividend is payable on February 21, 2022 to stockholders of record at the close of business on February 10, 2022,” concluded Mr. Gordon.

Alexis Rubinstein