Chefs' Warehouse Cuts FY13 Earnings Outlook

(RTTNews) - The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. (CHEF) said Monday that it now expects fiscal year 2013 revenue of $670.0 million to $673.0 million, earnings of $0.75 to $0.76 per share and modified pro forma earnings of $0.80 to $0.81 per share.

Previously, the company expected revenue of $660.0 million to $680.0 million, earnings of $0.84 to $0.87 per share and modified pro forma earnings of $0.88 to $0.91 per share.

Analysts polled by Thomosn Reuters currently expect the company to earn $0.90 per share on revenue of $671.63 million for the full yer 2013.

Christopher Pappas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Chefs' Warehouse said, "Top line performance of our core business for 2013 was toward the lower end of our expectations, due in part to adverse weather in the Northeast and mid-West during the key holiday season. However, with our acquisition of Allen Brothers in December we were able to continue to execute on our strategy of growing our business through opportunistic acquisitions."

The company plans to release financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 27, 2013 in late February.

The company also said that it has determined that an employee involved in the financial reporting process at its Michael's Finer Meats subsidiary, which the company acquired in August 2012, deliberately made unsupported adjustments to the subsidiary's inventory balances resulting in an aggregate overstatement to the subsidiary's inventory balance as of the closing date of approximately $427,000, which increased to an aggregate overstatement of approximately $905,000 at September 27, 2013. The overstatement of inventory resulted in an understatement of cost of goods sold. Because the company believes that the impact of those adjustments was not material to its consolidated financial statements for any financial reporting period subsequent to the closing date, the company is taking a non-cash charge of about $0.02 per share in the fourth quarter of 2013 to correct those misstatements.