Westrock Coffee Co. of Little Rock (Nasdaq: WEST) reported a $21.6 million loss Thursday for its quarter that ended June 30, wider than the $17.8 million loss the company posted in the same quarter in 2024.
The publicly traded coffee, tea and extracts company said net sales were $280.9 million for the quarter, an increase of 34.8% compared with the same quarter a year ago.
“We delivered record-breaking, second-quarter results,” Scott T. Ford, Westrock CEO and co-founder, said during an earnings conference call Thursday.
Ford said Westrock’s second-quarter results were tied to the start of commercial operations at its single serve cup plant, along with an increase in production at its extract and ready-to-drink plant in Conway. Westrock also controlled costs.
“Our new extract and RTD facility saw a fivefold increase in sales from our main production line in the quarter, and is on track for the third quarter to be up another fourfold,” Ford said.
Westrock, however, has had its challenges. “We got off to a much slower volume start than we originally anticipated,” he said, and “our startup costs exceeded our plan.”
Still, as its RTD facility went into production, Westrock also started its second single serve cup manufacturing facility in another part of its Conway complex.
“The startup of this plant has continued to go seamlessly,” Ford said. “As we moved from 3% of our total manufactured cups being made in this new plant to 25% in just three months, our combined single serve plants are now producing 50% more cups monthly than we were just a few short months ago.”
He said Westrock is adding customers to the facility over the next year.
Westrock has more than 1 million SF that can produce and distribute “hundreds of millions of RTD cans, glass bottles and multi serve bottles, along with, ultimately, billions of single serve cups each year,” Ford said.
Westrock’s beverage solutions segment generated $208.8 million in sales in the second quarter, an increase of 27.9% from the same quarter in 2024.
Its sustainable sourcing & traceability segment generated $72 million in sales in the quarter, an increase of 59.6% from the same period last year.
Meanwhile, Westrock’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the quarter was $15.3 million and included $7.6 million in scale-up costs tied to its Conway plant, an increase from $12.4 million from the same quarter a year ago.
The company’s stock was trading at $6.66 Thursday afternoon. Its closing price on Wednesday was $6.99. Over the past 12 months, shares were down about 30%.
Westrock’s CFO Chris Pledger said that commodity coffee price increases, which Westrock passes on to its customers, also contributed to its growth during the quarter.
“Tariffs remain a significant focus across the industry and will likely reflect a new normal,” he said.
Earlier this month, the U.S. implemented a 50% tariff on imports from Brazil, the world’s largest Arabica coffee producer and the single largest source of coffee import into the country.
While the tariffs add some “incremental strain,” it has ways to manage it, and will “continue to monitor the situation closely.”
“But despite these uncertainties, demand for our products remain strong across all customer segments, and we continue to benefit from the strength and diversification of our customer base,” Pledger said. “At this point, we see no reason to make any changes to our forward guidance.”
Ford said during the earnings call for the first quarter results that both the beverage solutions and SS&T segments adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are on track to be between $75 and $88 million for the full year.
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