Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ:CVGW) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call March 6, 2023 5:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Julie Kegley - Financial Profiles
Brian Kocher - President, CEO & Director
Shawn Munsell - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Benjamin Bienvenu - Stephens Inc.
Mitchell Pinheiro - Sturdivant & Co.
Benjamin Klieve - Lake Street Capital Markets
Eric Larson - Seaport Research
Operator
Good afternoon, and welcome to the First Quarter 2023 Calavo Growers Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions]. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Julie Kegley, Investor Relations for Calavo. You may begin.
Julie Kegley
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Calavo Growers' financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2023. This afternoon, we issued our earnings release, and it is available in the Investor Relations section of our website at ir.calavo.com. With me on today's call are Brian Kocher, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Shawn Munsell, Chief Financial Officer. We will begin with prepared remarks and then open up the call for your questions.
Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's comments will include forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as will, be, intend, believe, expect, anticipate or other comparable words and phrases. Statements that are not historical facts, such as statements about expected improvement in revenue and operating profit are also forward-looking statements.
Our actual results may vary materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. A discussion of the factors that could cause a material difference in our results compared to these forward-looking statements is contained in our SEC filings, including our reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q.
With that, I will now turn the call over to Brian Kocher.
Brian Kocher
Thank you, Julie, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today.
Our fiscal first quarter results reflect challenging conditions in both segments, but we have taken action and expect that our results will improve as we progress through the fiscal year. In the Grown segment, high volumes of Mexican avocados, especially small fruit, combined with still high retail shelf prices, pressured wholesale prices and margins more than anticipated during the quarter. While we expected industry avocado volume to increase during the quarter, we did not anticipate prices and margins to contract as much as they did. The average case price in our first quarter fell to about $28 versus around $34 in the fourth quarter and $43 in the prior year quarter. We also expected prices and margins to improve approaching the Super Bowl. Although conditions did improve later in January, the impact was more muted than anticipated.