Alico swings to quarterly profit

FORT MYERS — Agribusiness firm Alico reported a profit in the first quarter as a recent acquisition boosted citrus sales.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2015 ending Dec. 31, Alico reported net income of $5.8 million on revenues of $16.2 million. That compared with a net loss of $700,000 on revenues of $15 million in the same quarter one year ago.

In particular, Alico's citrus sales totaled $12.9 million in the first quarter compared with $5.6 million in the same quarter one year ago.

“The increase in operating revenue was due to an increase of $7.3 million in citrus groves revenues related primarily to the Orange-Co acquisition, offset by a decrease in improved farmland revenues of $5.4 million as the company exited the sugarcane farming operation and subsequently sold the related farmland in the first quarter of fiscal year 2015,” the company says in a statement.

In December, Alico announced three acquisitions including Orange-Co, the biggest of the three. The $274 million Orange-Co acquisition totaled 20,263 acres and helped transform Alico into the biggest citrus producer in the nation. Alico now has 32,600 acres of citrus groves in Florida, the company says.

You can read a recent story in the Business Observer about Alico here.