Chippy marks 40 years and life of dad with hospice fundraiser
THE team who run a much-loved Carlisle chippy hope they've done their late father 'proud' after raising around £1,500 for Eden Valley Hospice.
On St George's Day (April 23), Fontanas Chip Shop donated the full proceeds from every portion of chips sold to the hospice, in honour and celebration of the family-run business reaching its 40th anniversary.
For the sisters who now run the shop, Samantha Dixon and Emma Ward, the milestone was 'bittersweet' however, coming just a few months after the death of their dad, Davy Foster, who established the London Road shop in 1985 and had also raised money for the hospice throughout his life.
Samantha Dixon and Emma Ward donate £1,465 to Eden Valley Hospice (Image: Supplied)
A total of £1,465 was raised from the event at the London Road chippy, with an additional £564 collected at Davy's funeral also benefiting Eden Valley Hospice.
"We are absolutely thrilled at the amount of money we have raised for the Eden Valley Hospice," Samantha said.
"Customers made a point of coming in on the day. Whilst ordering their food, customers were also putting money into the collection buckets!
"I think our dad would be so pleased with our effort, and I hope we've done him proud," she said.
Davy pictured during a similar fundraising event back in 2017 (Image: Supplied)
Davy, who passed away in December at the age of 81, was well-known throughout Carlisle.
In his younger years, the jazz pianist ran discos with his cousin Tommy at King's Hall and Gretna Hall before opening Carlisle institutions like Twisted Wheel, Pagoda, and Flops. He later went on to open one of the city's best-known vinyl shops, Pink Panther Records.
Vicki Lesley, fundraiser at Eden Valley Hospice and Jigsaw, said: "Thank you so much to the Fontanas team for raising an incredible £1465 as part of their 40th year anniversary celebrations - our mascot, Hospuss, enjoyed the celebrations too!
Hospuss outside Fontanas on London Road during 40th anniversary (Image: Supplied) "Their generosity will ensure that care and compassion can continue to be given to local people with a life-limiting condition as well as their family and friends.
"We rely on the support of the local community to ensure we are here to continue providing quality care to all those who need it. We are very grateful for their continued kindness and support."
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James Oregan; Head of Investor Relations; Dole PLC Rory Byrne; Chief Executive Officer, Director; Dole PLC Jacinta Devine; Chief Financial Officer, Director; Dole PLC Christopher Barnes; Analyst; Deutsche Bank Gary Martin; Analyst; Davy Operator Welcome to Dole PLC's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call and webcast. Today's conference is being broadcast live over the internet and is also being recorded for playback purposes. (Operator Instructions) For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to the Head of Investor Relations with Dole PLC, James O'Regan. James Oregan Thank you. Welcome everybody, and thank you for taking the time to join our first-quarter 2025 earnings conference call and webcast. Joining me on the call today is our Chief Executive Officer, Rory Byrne; our Chief Operating Officer, Johan Lindén; and our Chief Financial Officer, Jacinta Devine. During this call, we'll be referring to presentation slides to supplement the remarks, and these, along with our earnings relief and other related materials are available on the Investor Relations section of the Dole PLC website. Please note, our remarks today will include certain forward-looking statements within the provisions of the Federal Security Safe Harbor Law. These reflect circumstances of the time they are made, and the company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied due to a wide range of factors, including those set forth in our SEC filings and press releases. Information regarding the use of non-GAAP financial measures may be found in our press release, which also includes a reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measures. With that, I'm pleased to turn today's call over to Rory. Rory Byrne Thank you, James. Welcome everybody and thank you for joining us today as we discuss our results in the first quarter of 2025. So turning first to the highlights of the first quarter, following a very strong result in 2024, we are pleased to report another good performance in the first quarter of 2025, exceeding our own expectations. On a like-for-like basis, group revenue increased by 4.2% to $2.1 billion and adjusted EBITDA decreased 2% to $104.8 million. The first quarter saw solid performances in both of our Diversified Fresh Produce segments, which helped to offset the anticipated headwind in our Fresh Fruit segment, which was impacted by Tropical Storm, Sarah, late last year. Adjusted net income came in at $33.1 million and adjusted EPS was $0.35 per share, down from $0.43 in Q1 of 2024, primarily due to the decrease in adjusted EBITDA. We are pleased to increase our dividend by 6.25% or [$0.085] per share for the first quarter. This is our first dividend increase since starting dividend payments back in 2021 and demonstrates our confidence in the long-term growth potential for our business. Post quarter end, we were very pleased to complete the $1.2 billion refinancing of the credit facilities at favorable rates relative to market conditions. This financing strengthens the financial position of dole and provides enhanced financial flexibility to support our growth and initiatives. Turning now to the operational review and starting with Fresh Fruit on slide 6. So Fresh Fruit delivered a robust performance in the first quarter with a just a bit of $63.3 million exceeding our own expectations, taking into account the anticipated impact of Tropical Storm, Sarah. Firstly, looking at North America, our underlying operations performed very well with good volume growth in bananas, as well as positive developments in both pineapples and plantains. Profitability was somewhat held back by the anticipated higher sourcing costs following the impact of Tropical Storm Sarah. We also experienced higher shipping costs as we completed scheduled dry dockings and managed some other temporary operational challenges that have now been resolved. We are addressing production challenges following Tropical Storm Sarah, and we expect to face some headwinds in this regard for the remainder of the financial year. However, our production and sourcing teams are doing an excellent job in mitigating this and are working diligently to manage the reinvestment and rehabilitation process, while also ensuring we continue to fully service our cost to our customers. We aim to return to near full production to the affected farms by early 2026. Turning to the European market, we saw stable performance overall in the first quarter, with continued good volume growth in bananas, as well as better performance in pineapples, offsetting more challenging pricing in bananas, which was impacted by the weaker $ in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the prior year. Looking ahead to the rest of the year, we continue to see robust demand, and we expect this to continue over the course of the full year. We feel very positive that the industry's supply and demand for bananas and pineapples are well balanced. Additionally, the strengthening the euro could potentially serve as a positive tail and for the remainder of the year. Moving on to our Diversified EMEA segment, this segment has had a positive start to the year, delivering very strong like-for-like growth in the first quarter to reach an adjusted EBITDA $27.7 million aided by both strong revenues and some margin expansion. 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Our Diversified America segment delivered a strong first quarter result with double-digit growth on a like-for-like basis in either, taking into account the disposal of progressive projects in late Q1 2024. This robust performance was driven by good results in the North American market, with only modest declines in our southern hemisphere export businesses despite experiencing more normal supply and market conditions compared to 2024. Notably, the previous year benefited from an exceptionally strong season for Chilean cherries. As we look further into 2025, we believe our businesses, both on the export side and in North America are well positioned. We will continue to stay highly attentive to the evolving dynamics in international trade and prepared to react appropriately. Trying to fresh vegetables, as noted in our recent earnings calls, we continue to work on delivering the best strategic outcome for our vegetable business, and this process remains ongoing. Operationally, following a robust turnaround in 2024, the business faced weaker fresh produce markets against a particularly strong comparative period in early 2024. However, this was offset by a stable performance and a value-added business, where we see clear signs of strengthening our competitiveness, characterized by improved delivery quality, lower underlying costs, and an increased focus on innovation. With that, I'll hand you over to Jacintha to give the financial review for the 1st quarter. Jacinta Devine Thank you, Rory, and good day everyone. Turning first to the group results on slide 11, we are pleased to have delivered another good performance for the first quarter of this financial year. Revenue of $2.1 billion was 1% lower on a reported basis, primarily due to lower revenue and Diversified Americas following the disposal of progressive produces last year, as well as a $21 million unfavorable impact from foreign currency translation. Excluding these impacts on a like-for-like basis, revenue increased 4.2%, with good organic growth seen in Fresh Fruit and Diversified Fresh Produce in EMEA. Net income in the first quarter was $44.2 million, a $21.3 million year-on-year decrease. However, the prior year had the benefit of a net exceptional gain of $37.3 million to the progressive produce disposal. Also, there was $8 million decrease in other income due to unrealized ethics losses on foreign currency borrowings. Offsetting these items was an increase in equity method investments related to a non-cash gain on an M&A transaction, as well as a higher net relating to our discontinued operations. Similarly to year end, we recorded a non-cash accounting adjustment to the carrying value of discontinued operations in Q1, with the adjustment to this quarter largely offsetting. The cessation of depreciation and amortization that occurs under discontinued operations count. Now, looking at the non-gap performance measures, adjusted EDA decreased by approximately $5 million, primarily due to a decrease in Fresh Fruit and a decrease in Diversified Fresh Produce in markets and the rest of the world due to the progressive produce disposal. On a like-for-like basis, the decrease was $2.2 million. Adjusted net income decreased $7.5 million predominantly due to the decrease in adjusted EBITDA as well as higher depreciation expense. Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.35 compared to $0.43 in the prior year. Now turning to the divisional updates for our continuing operations of starting with Fresh Fruit on slide 13, revenue increased 6.5%, primarily due to higher worldwide volumes of bananas sold, as well as higher worldwide pricing of pineapples and bananas, partially offsetting this with a lower worldwide volumes of pineapples and plantains. Adjusted EBITDA decreased $6.1 million, primarily driven by higher anticipated food sourcing costs following the impact of Tropical Storm Sarah in Honduras, as well as higher shipping costs due to the completion of scheduled dry dockings and the impact of an operational disruption for one of our vessels servicing the North American market. These challenges were partially offset by a good underlying performance in bananas on a worldwide basis, as well as improved performance in pineapples on a worldwide basis. The Diversified segment delivered another strong result in the first quarter of 2025. Reported revenue increased 4.5%, primarily due to the strong performance in the UK, Spain, and the Netherlands. This was partially offset by an FX headwind of $19.4 million and a net negative impact from M&A of $10.5 million, excluding these impacts on a like-for-like basis, revenue increased 8% or $68.4 million. It's just the increased 6.6% or $1.7 million, primarily driven by increases in the UK, Spain, and the Netherlands. This was partially offset by lower earnings in Germany and an unfavorable impact of foreign currency translation of $0.7 million on a like-for-like basis, adjusted EBITDA increased 9.4% or 2.5 million. Now turning to Diversified Fresh Produce Americas and the rest of the world. As in previous quarters, reported revenue in Diversified markets was impacted by a progressive produce disposal last year. On a like-for-like basis, revenue declined by 6.8%. This decrease was primarily attributable to lower export pricing for key Southern Hemisphere products, particularly cherries, as well as declines in the North American market due to reduced pricing for grapes and lower volumes of avocados. Adjusted EBITDA decreased $0.9 million, primarily driven by the disposal of progressive produce. However, on a like-for-like basis, adjusted EBITDA increased by 10.4% or $1.5 million. This growth was primarily driven by strong performance in the North American markets in kiwis, citrus, and avocados. However, these gains were partially offset by declines on the southern hemisphere export side in cherries and grapes, as well as declines in berries in the North American market. Now turning to slide 16 to focus on capital location on our balance sheets. Firstly, as mentioned by Rory and not in a press release issued on May 1st, we were very pleased to announce the successful completion of a $1.2 billion refinance of our corporate credit facilities. The new syndicated credit facilities consist of a $600-million multi-currency five-year revolving credit facility, a $250 million five-year term loan, and a $350 million seven-year farm credit term loan replacing our existing RCF, TLA and TLB. Looking at interest expense, this has continued to decrease due to lower debt levels as well as lower base rates, and while $17.2 million in the first quarter. Under the assumption that base rates will remain broadly stable in 2025 and not assuming any exceptional cash proceeds, we continue to expect for your interest expense to be approximately $70 million. Cash capital expenditure from continuing operations was $52.8 million in quarter, including the buyout of two vessel finance cases of $36 million that were already reflected within net debt at year end and discussed in our previous earnings calls. The remaining $16.8 million included expenditure on vessel dry dockings, farming investments, efficiency projects in our warehouses, and ongoing investments in IT and logistics assets. In line with our usual seasonal working capital trends and accentuated by the timing of the cherry season, we saw a working capital outflow in the first quarter. The combination of these factors resulted in free cash flow from continuing operations, being an outflow of $131.6 million. As in previous years, we expect to see this unwind as the year progresses. This outflow was the primary driver behind the net increase in net leverage to 1.9 times at the end of March asset sales in the quarter were $4.8 million. This primarily related to the sale of actively marketed land in Hawaii. As mentioned by Rori, we are pleased to declare an $0.085 dividend for the first quarter, representing a 6.25% increase from our last declared dividend. Now, I'll hand you back to Rory, who will give an update on our full year outlook. Rory Byrne Thanks, Jacinta. Well, we're pleased with our performance in Q1, delivering a result which is out of our own expectations. This result gives us a strong foundation for the rest of the year in a very dynamic macroeconomic environment. Like most multinational businesses, we continue to monitor the evolving macro international economic scenario. We do believe that our industry is a good example of the benefits of international trade, providing year-round healthy products to our consumers, and are confident that the existing trade deals will continue on acceptable terms. Short-term disruptions may arise across a range of areas such as foreign exchange rates, labor markets, or supply chains. A good start to the year, along with our resilient and diverse business model gives us confidence in our ability to navigate the challenges of the current volatile economic environment. Consequently, we are pleased to revise our guidance upwards and are now targeting full year adjusted EBITDA of at least $380 million. Turning to investments over the course of the year, we continue to expect as a baseline to have a maintenance level of CapEx from continuing operations broadly in line with the depreciation expense of approximately $100 million. Additionally, we also anticipate some increased CapEx spend over the course of the year related to our reinvestments in Honduras, albeit significantly supported by insurance proceeds. We remain focused on exploring a range of development opportunities through both internal and external investment, which we believe can further strengthen our business and drive growth for the years ahead. I want to conclude by once again thanking all our outstanding people across the group for their ongoing commitment and dedication to driving Dole PLC forward. Our experience and knowledgeable team has continued to serve us very well. Additionally, we really appreciate all our essential partners, suppliers, customers, and all other stakeholders for the continued support. And with that, I'll hand the call back to the operator to open the line for questions. Operator (Operator Instructions) Christopher Barnes, Deutsche Bank. Christopher Barnes Hi, good morning, good afternoon. I just wanted to follow up on the EIA guidance. You're not setting a floor at the upper end of the prior range. I'm curious, how much of that raise would you attribute to better underlying performance in the quarter, perhaps higher. Over the balance of the year versus inorganic factors like the expected foreign exchange translation tailwinds at current rates and then just related to that does this updated outlook embed current tariffs in place in the US market and is there any way to quantify what those -- what those tariff impacts might be on a gross basis, and what actions you're taking to mitigate those. Thanks. Rory Byrne Well, thank you, Christopher. So a range of interesting questions there. Yeah, I mean, obviously doing forecasting in the current environment is a little bit challenging. So we've put all put all the factors into the mix, including the current known scenario regarding tariffs and their impact that the likely impact on our business, and that's our best shot at the target for the full year. A big element of that is obviously down to doing a little bit better in Q1 than we had anticipated, particularly with the headwinds that we had highlighted on Tropical Storm, Sara. And we have made some assumption that the translation over the remaining quarters given a -- exchange rates to the dollar facilitating a better translation on reporting in dollars. So to sum of all those factors, we are moving a little bit above our previous range. So I think putting it all together, we're feeling positive about the balance of the year. Christopher Barnes Very good. And then just a follow up around the fresh vegetables business. I understand you continue to evaluate potential exit options, but I mean it's been over a year since the deal was with Fresh Express was terminated but how do you guard against the risk that underlying business performance deteriorates as the mark as you continue to market that business and I guess like, are you still committed to exiting the business or might it make more sense just to retain it? I mean, performance was very strong last year and you're up against a tough compare this quarter, but it seems like you're still net ahead, so I'm just curious how you're thinking about that business and going forward. Rory Byrne Thanks. Yeah, it's a good question, Christopher, and clearly we would have liked to have had strategic certainty around this at an earlier stage than we have done, but the process is complex, and we do have, we are trying to find a good strategic answer for all of the stakeholders, the employees, the management, customers, suppliers, the long term future of the business. So putting the new deals together has been. Quite complex. I think continuing to disclose it is discontinued operations probably highlights where our position on it is and that we think there is an appropriate exit. It'll be a little bit different to the fresh express deal and we're still working on it we're very actively working on that, and I think it'll be a good outcome for all of the stakeholders if we can get to that position. We've worked very hard as well to try and avoid any impact on the ongoing business, it's not perfect having it in discontinued operations, but there are a lot of other competing businesses who are either private equity owned who are also for sale or will at some point in time to be for sale, so. It's, a little bit of the world we live in, but businesses do change hands. You do have temporary owners and private equity owners and things like that. So, it can be challenging to manage in that environment and you know we've done our management team have done well in, working around those challenges. Christopher Barnes Very helpful context. Thanks, I'll pass it on. Operator Gary Martin, Davy. Gary Martin Hi, Rory, Johan. Congrats on a strong start to the year. Just a few questions from my side just to get things off. So you completed your refi post quarter. I think you noted that there's a driver there is more flexibility for growth initiatives. It'd just be good just to again to get a run through of, kind of how you envisage capital allocation policy on a go forward basis, be it internal or external opportunities. Rory Byrne Thanks. Yeah, thanks, Gary. Yeah, I mean, I think as always, we keep all of the capital allocation alternatives on the table. A big strategic issue at first is really getting to the end of the vegetable current process and, whether it's keep our sale will have an impact on our future capital availability or a focus of our future capital. I think as well getting the facilities renewed which you just recently announced was helpful to give us, the basis and the having those facilities in place for the long term is a very good outcome, and the terms negotiated with the finance team, I think, were also more than satisfactory. We continue to look at acquisitions with the internal corporate finance department, we look at, a lot of companies that are, different geographies, whether it's in the US or in Europe, there are a number of P/E funds, for example, coming to the end of. Life cycle and still some challenges around the price expectations of the private sector versus the public sector, we've seen, some changes in the market, Greenyard, for example, being taken private at a at a decent premium to its quoted price. The dividends as well, you'll have seen Gary, we've pushed up the dividends at 6.25%, so, in line with the longstanding policy and produce and do, we've tried to build steadily over the years and the dividend. And then we've got a lot of internal development projects that we're doing a lot of work on at the moment, our fresh food division are particularly focused on developing categories like plantains. Doing some extra production ourselves into joint ventures. We're looking at some of our lines and we're expanding on some of our other JVs, particularly in our [JV] in Chile. We have a number of projects in Northern Europe that can be very interesting, but there's a lot of work to get them to a conclusion on we can bring this conclusion, it could be good internal organic growth in terms of reinvesting, particularly in automation technology. And then around the business, we've got, smaller but important add-on CapEx projects and that can be expanding our facilities capacity in Ireland or in Spain. We're doing well in France in terms of building up a business, utilizing some facilities in the in the port of Sete in the south of France, so I think it can be good. So again, all of the options are on the table. We are still a little bit conditioned by the outcome of the fresh vegetable division and the strategic outcome there, but it's an ongoing process. Gary Martin It's really good color. Maybe just on the operational side, it was a particularly standout performance just on diversifying Americas and the rest of the world in terms of the like-for-like EBITDA, but I think it'd be good just to get a better understanding of just the various components that drove that like the AP is just given, I think revenues on a like-for-like basis for back. So I mean, is it entirely, mixed from the kind of North American basket of goods point of view? Is that what drove the profit performance in the rest of the world and America's? Rory Byrne Yeah, I think we called out that distribution and handling businesses in North America had a very strong first quarter. Our export businesses out of South America, in particular, Chile, had a more normal market year. We did have an exceptional '24 and particularly in cherries in that division. It was back to a more normal year but you know nothing, no particular negatives so again I think it's well balanced there to look at them in line with our own assessment of what market conditions might have been. So it's, reasonably positive for the rest of the year. Gary Martin And then maybe just one final one, a bit of an anorak one just on your CapEx guidance and you've retained $100 million, but just in terms of some of that additional incremental CapEx that might be required for reinvestment in Honduras following the tropical storm, it would be possible just to get a bit of a quantum on how much that is above the insurance proceeds. Rory Byrne Like, it's not a huge amount, Gary, but something in the order of $10 million to $12 million but we're hoping that that will, bring with it some incremental even we're going to, do a little bit, in terms of improving the hopefully the yields, improving the flood protections for the longer term as well. So but it's not a huge amount of money $10 million to $12 million territory. Gary Martin Really good color. I'll pass it on. Operator Thanks. This concludes the question-and-answer session. I'll turn the call to Rory Byrne for closing remarks. Rory Byrne Thank you. Well, I think we're pleased that we've delivered another good quarter. We've been confident enough to upgrade the target to at least $380 million of targeted EBITDA for the full year, increased the dividend by 6.25% to take it up to $0.085 a quarter. We've made some very good projects progress as well on a number of strategic projects, so lots of macroeconomic challenges out there, but we believe we're very well positioned to navigate our way through them successfully. So thank you all very much for joining us today. Operator This concludes today's conference call and webcast. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect. 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