Natural and organic food offerings have become very important since people have become health conscious. They now want a healthy lifestyle and food safety when it comes to choosing food. Thus, demand for organic products is on an uptrend. Further, the organic food retailers have gained importance.

Companies such as United Natural Foods (UNFI) are witnessing higher demand for its products and continue to register great numbers. Its first quarter results were impressive as the reported numbers were way ahead of the Streets estimates. This helped its shares to move north.

The blockbuster quarter

Revenue for the quarter surged 24.4%, to $1.99 billion, over last year. This was higher than the estimate of $1.95 billion and was driven by higher demand for the companys natural and organic food. Another key driver of growth was the number of acquisitions made by the company in fiscal 2014. Even if we exclude the benefits of the buyout, sales grew by 10.2% during the quarter.

The gross margin of the company declined 92 basis points to 16%. Margins were affected by a shift in customer mix, unfavorable currency fluctuations and lower margins of Tonys Fine Foods, which was acquired last year.

Further, the bottom line was also impressive. Earnings jumped to $0.66 per share from $0.56 per share in the previous year. The analysts were expecting a bottom line of $0.63 per share. Earnings surged due to growth in revenue and the recently made acquisitions.

By the segments

Sales in the Supermarket segment rose 31% over last year and that of the Supernatural channel climbed 16.5%. These two segments together make the most of the retailers revenue. Therefore, growth in these segments drove the top line higher.

Revenue from the Independent channel was also up 23.8% and that of Food Service segment surged 60.4%. Although Food Service segment makes a small part of the total revenue, growth in this segment was remarkable.

The two new acquisitions

Continued here:
What Makes This Organic Food Retailer A Desirable Pick

North America (PRWEB) December 16, 2014

Imagine growing, fresh, organic food, just steps from your kitchen. StartGrowingFood.com, makes that possible with the use of new interactive smart technology designed to help people grow food at home.

Even if users dont have a backyard, or any gardening experience, StartGrowingFood.com's special formula is designed to turn even a little 6-square-foot balcony into over 50 lbs of food. Thats $400 worth of fresh organic food, for only $8 worth of seeds. Its all about effective space and crop planning, says Dron, and StartGrowingFood.coms technology combines the precision of science with the resourcefulness of technology to create free customized growing plans. Plans are created using smart technology to optimize them for maximum food production and success in each users unique growing space.

We want to challenge the way we produce food in North America, while also re-connecting people to the food that nurtures them. Where some see buildings, we see vertically farms. Farms with food people love and trust, says Dron.

With increasing urban sprawl, society is experiencing a shift in the way people eat and live. The growing desire to eat local, organic food is increasingly challenging to meet considering the reduction of available agricultural land and increased use chemicals and genetic modification in commercial food production.

This innovative technology creates for visitors a free optimized plan designed for their personal space. It then remembers each users plan to future support them year with optional coaching tips and reminders tailored to them, and sent right to their phone. Tips like: Hey, were expecting a cold front, cover your basil or Hi, its time to thin your carrots. Click here for a quick how-to video

Margaret is turning to crowd sourcing site Indiagogo, to develop a user friendly version of the technology to make it easy and fun for everyone. As she explains, It feels right. We truly believe in the power of people coming together to help build something meaningful and thats why were turning to the community to be a part of creating StartGrowingFood.com. Supporters will have direct contact to feature discussions so their needs can be heard. Our community is a vital part of the process and plays a huge role in building something designed to by the community, to feed the community.

To learn more, visit http://www.StartGrowingFood.com

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About Margaret Dron: After spending a decade working for a variety of technology companies, Margaret decided to pursue her lifelong dream of entrepreneurship by launching a successful series of food and health expos while supporting communities that connect with over 220,000 fans.

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Pros And Cons of Organic food

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This Is Not Your Average Food Truck: Bringing Fresh Organic Food To The City
Need a lift? A little pick-me-up? A crisis can bring a community together. On this week #39;s #WatchThisFeelBetter from AJ+, you #39;ll learn how an urban neighborhood gets its fresh organic food,...

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It's a tough operating environment in retail right now -- not that Costco investors would know anything about it. The warehouse giant this week made it look easy by posting another quarter of market-thumping revenue growth. Sales rose by 7% in existing U.S. stores. And that's a result that competitors from Whole Foods to Wal-Mart just couldn't touch.

Third-quarter comparable-sales results. Data source: Company financial filings.

The organic food opportunity Costco's membership model is clearly resonating with customers on everything from televisions to bulk paper products. But there's one area that likely stood out from all the other grocery departments: organic food. Costco has targeted that category as a key growth opportunity, and not just because so many shoppers are choosing these healthier products. The warehouser also likes organic groceries because they cost more than other comparable food items.

However, Costco doesn't see that higher price point as an invitation to goose profits, like many other retailers do. Instead it's a chance to deliver bigger savings and thereby win loyal members. In other words, organic food offers a nice showcase of Costco's strength as a price leader.

Here's how Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti explained the strategy back in October: "We can generally provide a better savings than others [in organic] because other retailers sometimes will use it as an ability to get more margins, and so we show greater savings."

Amazon.com 'sCEO Jeff Bezos put it another way when he said , "Your margin is my opportunity."

Winning market share That explains why at least some of Costco's recent organic food sales gains seem to be coming at the expense of Whole Foods. The organic food grocer sports a 4% profit margin, which is huge by grocery standards. Kroger and Costco, by comparison, both stay consistently below 2% of sales by that metric.

Meanwhile, Whole Foods has seen its comps growth slow for five straight quarters as Costco and others fight to capitalize on the popularity of healthier grocery shopping.

Whole Foods' quarterly comparable store sales growth.Data source: Company financial filings.

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How High Organic Food Prices Are Boosting Costco's Results

Courtesy City of Port Coquitlam

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) While Metro Vancouvers new organic food scrap ban kicks in January 1st, most people will actually have until 2017 before its strictly enforced.

Starting in the new year large restaurants, hotels and supermarkets need to separate the scraps from their garbage but theyll have a six-month grace period.

Andrew Marr with Metro Vancouver says it will be phased in for everyone else.

Obviously the inspectors will start looking harder for smaller quantities of food scraps. So the quantity theyre looking for will go down in 2016 and then itll go down again in 2017.

It will be up to the people bringing in the loads to make sure they are clean, or theyll be fined.

We have people who randomly inspect loads of garbage when theyre arriving at our facilities and so they just do a visual inspection. Its a very simple thing, they dont open bags or anything like that. So theyre just looking really for large obvious quantities of food scraps.

Metro Vancouver feels the phase approach will help to resolve any initial issues.

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Metro Vancouver organic food scrap ban to be phased in

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Chef Tom Voigt - Mediterranean - Fusion and Organic Food
http://www.cheftomvoigt.com Meine Wurzeln liegen in der Mediterranen-Mitteleuropischen Kche, in der Klassisch-Franzsischen Kochkunst. Aber auch sterreich, Deuts...

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Organic Food Song
Students wrote this song about the importance of eating organic foods. The class read the Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

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Organic Food Song - Video

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Melilea - Organic Food Concept

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Commercial [Organic Food]
Mrs. Calhoon-Dillahunt [Final]

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