Hawkins (HWKN) has reported 26.63 percent rise in profit for the quarter ended Oct. 02, 2016. The company has earned $7.19 million, or $0.68 a share in the quarter, compared with $5.68 million, or $0.54 a share for the same period last year.     

Revenue during the quarter grew 28.18 percent to $121.25 million from $94.59 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter expanded 135 basis points over the previous year period to 22.29 percent. Total expenses were 89.97 percent of quarterly revenues, up from 89.95 percent for the same period last year. That has resulted in a contraction of 2 basis points in operating margin to 10.03 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $12.16 million, compared with $9.51 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at $17.91 million compared with $13.33 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA margin improved 68 basis points in the quarter to 14.77 percent from 14.09 percent in the last year period.

"Our operating income for the quarter was up 28% over last year, with about half of that increase coming from our Health and Nutrition segment acquired at the end of the third quarter last year," said Patrick Hawkins, chief executive officer and president. "While sales from this segment were behind the previous quarter primarily due to the timing of customer orders, we continue to see opportunities for significant growth in this segment and have recently added sales, marketing and operations talent as we build bench strength within this segment. We believe these investments will allow us to drive incremental growth in the future, particularly for our value-added products and services, including product formulation, processing and blending capabilities."