John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. (NASDAQ:JBSS) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call November 2, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jeffrey Sanfilippo - CEO

Frank Pellegrino - CFO

Michael Valentine - Group President

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc.'s First Quarter Fiscal 2023 Operating Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker for today, Mr. Jeffrey Sanfilippo Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Jeffrey Sanfilippo

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our 2023 first quarter earnings conference call. Thank you for joining us. On the call with me today is Frank Pellegrino, our CFO; Jasper Sanfilippo, our COO; and Mike Valentine, our Group President.

We may make some forward-looking statements today. These statements are based on our current expectations and they involve certain risks and uncertainties. The factors that could negatively impact results are explained in the various SEC filings that we have made, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q. We encourage you to refer to the filings to learn more about these risks and uncertainties that are inherent in our business.

We decided to change the earnings call format to freshen up our presentation. I will start the discussion and highlight overall performance and strategies and then turn the call over to Frank, who will provide a financial update.

Fiscal 2023 is off to a strong start, including record first quarter net sales and volume growth across multiple distribution channels and our consumer branded business. We continue to see strong demand for our products despite the current inflationary environment as sales volume in our customer channel grew by nearly 3%, excluding the loss of a private brand grocery customer.

And our Fisher recipe nuts grew volume 20%. Sales volume within our foodservice business increased 15% as we continue to grow the channel with new distribution at existing customers and the continued easing of COVID-19 restrictions. Lastly, the prior year's first fiscal quarter was positively impacted by a onetime gain, which accounted for almost 50% of the comparable quarter decrease in diluted EPS.

We are maintaining a focus on manufacturing efficiencies, optimizing our supply chain and aligning our costs with selling prices. And we continue to respond to the challenging and dynamic environment that we face today, including the effects of inflation as we approach the holiday season and throughout this fiscal year. On a positive note, we have recently experienced some relief as freight and commodity acquisition costs have begun to stabilize.