VANCOUVER, B.C. – Village Farms is making significant headway as it moves into the final quarter of 2015 with exciting new marketing partnerships on the line and the promise of additional market penetration.

In the company’s Q3 2015 financial report, CEO Michael DeGiglio touched on what’s to come as the company heads into the new year.

DeGiglio said that Village Farms has made progress in rebuilding most of the company’s assets damaged in the 2012 hail storm, paying down $20 million of debt, shifting production and market focus to adjust to changing consumer trends, and furthering production technology.

“We have exciting marketing partnerships and operational projects in the works for 2016 that will further enhance our operating results both for the short term and long term,” he said in a press release. “Our repositioning strategy over the last few years is positively trending with improved success as demonstrated by our third quarter results.”

Earlier this year, Village Farms signed an exclusive marketing and distribution agreement with Great Northern Greenhouses, a grower in Leamington, Ontario. The deal will be able to provide Village Farms with additional production capacity, as well as provide a strong foothold in Ontario, Canada.

“Our transition to increased production of exclusive varieties resulted in increased penetration and price increases in key accounts,” DeGiglio continued.

In the third quarter, Village Farms reached net sales of $37.9 million, an increase of $1.3 million, or 3%, when compared to the same period last year.

Village Farms’ EBITDA increased $1.7 million to $1.8 million in the third quarter, compared to $.1 million in the same period last year.

For the first nine months of 2015, ended September 30, 2015, Village Farms net sales reached $106.8 million, increasing by 5% when compared to the same period last year. The increase was primarily attributed to the 15% increase in the average selling price of tomatoes, partially offset by a 7% decrease in tomato pounds sold, a 24% decrease in pepper pounds sold, and a 9% decrease in the average selling price of cucumbers.

The increase in tomato prices and decrease in tomato pounds sold are due to a reduction in the growing area of the lower priced, higher yielding tomato-on-the-vine, to higher priced, lower yielding specialty tomatoes, the company said.

On the other hand, the decrease in pepper volume is due to the loss of a pepper distribution contract and the close of the company’s Dominican Republic pepper operation in June 2014.

DeGiglio said, “We continue to receive positive feedback from our customer base on our product innovation and pipeline of new products.”

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Village Farms