Lake Success-based The Hain Celestial Group on Thursday said it widened its fourth quarter net loss to $7.7 million from $4.6 million a eyar ago, as net sales decreased 10 percent to $557.7 million.
CEO Mark Schiller, however, said the company has “started to make significant progress on our key strategies in the United States, including simplifying the portfolio, strengthening our core capabilities and expanding margins and cash flow.”
He added that the plan is to “first get smaller and more profitable, so that we could then focus our resources on reinvigorating profitable topline growth in a core set of brands.”
Hain Celestial’s fourth quarter gross margin was 19.0 percent, 120 basis points less than the prior year.
Net sales for the year decreased 6 percent to $2.3 billion as gross margins fell to 19.3 percent, a 170 basis point decrease over the prior year.
The company reported a $49.9 million annual net loss compared to $82.4 million in net income the prior year.
