Food distributor posts loss

BONITA SPRINGS — Innovative Food Holdings reported a net loss in the most recent quarter, days after it announced plans to spin off its meal-delivery business.

Innovative Food posted a net loss of $3.2 million on revenues of $12.1 million in the quarter ending September 30. That compares with a net loss of $600,000 on revenues of $8.8 million in the same quarter one year ago.

Innovative Food Holdings, which distributes gourmet products to chefs around the country, says it will spin off The Fresh Diet as a separate publicly traded company next year. The Fresh Diet delivers freshly prepared meals to consumers in 44 metro areas in the U.S.

“As recently announced, we plan to spin-off The Fresh Diet as a separate public company in 2016, which will enable us to focus on our strong, cash flow generating, direct-to-chef business,” says Sam Klepfish, CEO of Innovative Food Holdings, in a statement. “We believe that two distinct, segment-focused companies will more effectively drive growth in shareholder value and command a more appropriate valuation from the capital markets.”

The Bonita Springs-based company says its direct-to-chef business has growing sales and is profitable. “We continue to execute in our direct-to-chef business, driving 15% revenue growth for the quarter,” says Justin Wiernasz, president of Innovative Food Holdings. “In fact, this is now the sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth in direct-to-chef, demonstrating the ongoing demand for our specialty food ingredients and the leadership of our direct-from-source platform.”