Green Mountain Coffee perks along

Sales at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. keep percolating, although earnings weren't quite as strong.

The Vermont-based company with a distribution plant in East Knoxville said Wednesday its first-quarter 2010 net sales for first quarter 2010 were up 77 percent to $349.4 million from $197 million recorded in the same period a year ago.

Earnings for the quarter totaled $12.5 million, or 27 cents per fully diluted share, compared to $14.4 million, or 37 cents per fully diluted share, in the first quarter 2009. The 2009 period included the favorable impact of a pre-tax $17 million, or 27-cent per fully diluted share, patent litigation settlement. Excluding the patent settlement, first quarter fully diluted earnings per share of 27 cents is a 163 percent increase over the same year-ago period.

In the quarter ended Dec. 26, Green Mountain posted transaction expenses from the Timothy's Coffees of the World and Diedrich Coffee Inc. acquisitions of approximately $5 million. The Timothy's purchase was completed Nov. 13 and the Diedrich Coffee purchase is pending.

During the quarter, Green Mountain said 650 million K-Cup portion packs were shipped by all Keurig licensed roasters, up 82 percent over the year-ago quarter. Supporting continued growth in K-Cup demand, there were 1,466,000 Keurig brewers shipped during the first quarter of fiscal 2010 compared to 711,000 shipped during the first quarter of fiscal 2009.

"Our company continues to deliver superb financial results that demonstrate the resiliency and transformative nature of our unique business model," said Lawrence J. Blanford, Green Mountain president and CEO. "Due to our strong first quarter financial results, we are raising our expectations for fiscal 2010 EPS from prior estimates of $1.85 to $1.95 per fully diluted share to a range of $1.95 to $2.05 per fully diluted share excluding any one-time acquisition-related transaction expenses for the pending Diedrich acquisition above the amount incurred in the first quarter of fiscal 2010."

Blanford said the company's success relies on execution of initiatives for sustainable growth, including the acquisitions and the start-up of new higher speed packaging lines in Knoxville and Vermont.

Green Mountain's operations are managed through the Specialty Coffee business unit that produces coffee, tea and hot cocoa from its Tully's Coffee, Green Mountain Coffee, Newman's Own Organics coffee and Timothy's World Coffee brands. The Keurig business unit involves manufacturing of single-cup brewing systems for the K-Cup portion pack and Keurig Single-Cup Brewers lines of business.