United Natural Foods Plunges 15% Following Disappointing Outlook, Acquisition Announcement

Shares of United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI plunged more than 15 percent on Monday after the company provided preliminary second quarter and full year fiscal 2016 guidance and an acquisition announcement.

United Natural Foods announced it expects to earn $0.43 to $0.45 per share in the second quarter on revenue of $2.046 billion to $2.048 billion. The company also expects to earn $2.27 to $2.37 per share in the full fiscal year on revenue of $8.31 billion to $8.43 billion.

Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $0.62 per share on revenue of $2.07 billion in the second quarter and earn $2.81 per share in the full fiscal year on revenue of $8.46 billion.

Steven Spinner, President and Chief Executive Officer commented, "Our updated results reflect the rapidly changing near term industry dynamics facing UNFI and its constituents. We have made significant progress in developing our fresh platform, e-commerce, brands and infrastructure. UNFI's second quarter preliminary results and our view of fiscal 2016 reflect our commitment to investing in growth throughout our organization while we continue to evaluate our cost structure and customer experience."

In a separate press release, United Natural Foods said that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Haddon House Food Products for $217.5 million.

Haddon is a distributor and merchandiser of natural and organic and gourmet ethnic products throughout the Eastern United States.

"Haddon House has a unique product and service offering that we expect to play an important role in our ongoing strategy to build out UNFI's gourmet and ethnic product categories across the country," stated Steven Spinner, UNFI's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The Haddon House team has demonstrated exemplary customer service and growth over the last decade while also building a distinctive private label brands business. We are excited to have them join the UNFI family as we venture into new channels and markets together. I look forward to working with David Anderson, Sr. and David Anderson, Jr., both of whom will remain at the company in leadership roles, as we move this exciting service offering and product category across our companies and throughout the US."