Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. reported record quarterly net sales of $658.3 million, a 103% increase compared to the same quarter last year, in its financial review for the first quarter of fiscal 2023 on September 27, 2022. The increase in the producer’s sales was attributed to record average conventional egg selling prices and a record specialty egg sales volume.
“The significant increase in pricing and favorable volume trends in specialty egg sales, along with efficient expense management, led to improved profitability with a gross profit margin of 33.0% for the first quarter of fiscal 2023,” said Max Bowman, Cal-Maine Foods Chief Financial Officer of Cal-Maine Foods.
Outside of higher conventional egg prices, the producer’s increase in demand for specialty eggs was also attributed to California’s and Massachusetts’ cage-free housing laws becoming effective on January 1, 2022, as well as more retailers offering cage-free products.
Bowman added, “Egg prices continued to move higher during the quarter as supply tightened due to the impact of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak and good customer demand for conventional eggs.”
Over the quarter, the selling price of conventional eggs averaged $2.368 per dozen, compared to $0.990 the first quarter of 2022. The selling price of specialty eggs averaged $2.101 per dozen, compared to $1.872 in the same quarter in 2022.
Cal-Maine reported quarterly sales of its specialty eggs at $200.8 million, or 31.8 % of its total shell egg revenue. Specialty dozens sold came to 34.7% of total dozens sold compared with 27.8% in the prior-year period. Conventional egg volumes sold dropped 2.3% compared to the first quarter in 2022. Total dozens sold increased to 275.3 million, or 8.1%, compared to 254.6 million in the same quarter last year.
Dolph Baker, Cal-Maine Foods chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Our operations ran well during the quarter, and we are pleased with our ability to manage the business despite significant inflationary pressures contributing to rising costs for feed, labor, packaging, and distribution, among other costs.”
