Freshpet Reports Strongest Quarterly Growth Since Going Public

Despite challenges presented by Omicron and supply chain disruptions, Freshpet experienced its “strongest quarterly net sales growth rate (41.5 percent) since the company went public in 2014,” during the company’s first quarter of 2022, which ended March 31, CEO Billy Cyr said during the Secaucus, N.J.-based refrigerated pet food manufacturer’s earnings call with investors on May 2.

“We overcame supply shortages and construction delays to design, construct, install, and start up the incremental capacity that has enabled us to not only meet our rapidly growing demand but to also fill the trade inventory hole that we dug over the past 18 months,” Cyr said. “We still have some pockets where our in-stocks are not where they need to be, particularly in pet specialty, where we went through a distributor change. But overall, we have our best retail conditions in almost two years, and they keep getting better.”

In the quarter, net store count grew by 300 to 23,931, CFO Heather Pomerantz reported.

“We also upgraded 72 stores and placed second or third fridges in 179 stores,” Pomerantz said. “We expect the rate of growth on each of those measures to accelerate as the year goes on.”