Turning Point Brands Posts Third-Quarter Results

Turning Point Brands reported net sales of $109.9 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2021, up 5.5 percent over that of the previous year’s third quarter. Gross profit increased 12.3 percent to $54.3 million and net income increased 49.3 percent to $13.4 million.

“Our third quarter performance fell within our expectations with sales growth of 11 percent in our core business despite facing the headwind of Covid-related consumption and other benefits we experienced in the prior year period,” said TPB President and CEO Larry Wexler in a statement.

“Zig-Zag had another robust quarter driven by our strategic initiatives and growth within our Canadian business. Stoker’s saw double-digit growth in our Moist Snuff Tobacco (MST) business which drove growth in the overall segment. Regarding capital deployment, we continued to repurchase our shares during the quarter and today announced an increased share repurchase authorization. We also maintain a strong balance sheet to pursue a healthy pipeline of investment opportunities. Overall, we remain optimistic about the growth prospects in our core business.”

NewGen Products gross profit increased 22.4 percent to $13.5 million for the quarter. The segment gross margin expanded 760 basis points to 36.2 percent with the improvement partially driven by industry pricing pressure ahead of the PMTA submission deadline in the previous year comparable period.

Wexler said he was encouraged by the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations recent decision to reconsider and place back into review the premarket tobacco product application for TPB’s proprietary vapor products, which the agency had earlier rejected.

“I am confident that we submitted a robust application and look forward to engaging with the FDA in its review,” he said. “We continue to believe that robust regulatory oversight is a positive for the industry and we believe we are favorably positioned to leverage our strong regulatory and logistics capabilities to capitalize on an attractive long-term opportunity.”