Middleby Corp (MIDD) has reported a 29.64 percent rise in profit for the quarter ended Apr. 01, 2017. The company has earned $70.70 million, or $1.24 a share in the quarter, compared with $54.54 million, or $0.96 a share for the same period last year.

Revenue during the quarter went up marginally by 2.70 percent to $530.30 million from $516.36 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter expanded 139 basis points over the previous year period to 39.50 percent. Total expenses were 80.94 percent of quarterly revenues, down from 83.27 percent for the same period last year. This has led to an improvement of 233 basis points in operating margin to 19.06 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $101.08 million, compared with $86.38 million in the previous year period.

Selim A. Bassoul chairman and chief executive officer, commented, "At the Commercial Foodservice Equipment Group, sales slowed in comparison to the prior year due to timing of purchases from our major restaurant chain customers. Although we expect continued slower sales in the short term, we have an active pipeline of new product opportunities with our existing customers and have added several new restaurant chain customers recently. We remain confident those opportunities will translate into sales growth as we progress into the second half of the year. Additionally, we continue to realize increasing interest in our new product innovations, which benefit our sales mix and related profitability."