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Innovative Food Holdings Reports Record Yearly Revenues, Record Operating Cash Flow

^{Published on 2011-03-17 11:15:46 - Market Wire}
 

NAPLES, FL--(Marketwire - March 17, 2011) - Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: [ IVFH ]), a marketer and purveyor of over 4,000 high quality gourmet food products throughout the United States to professional chefs and to the gourmet consumer market, announced today full year 2010 results.

The Company's Operating profit (without operations related stock and options related gains/losses) increased by over 100% to $380,702, a significant improvement compared to $181,344 in Operating profits (without operations related stock and options related gains/losses) for 2009.

Net revenues were $9.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, an approximate 30% increase compared to net revenues of $7.6 million for 2009.

Fourth quarter revenues were $2.9 million which represents an increase of approximately 25% compared to revenues of $2.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Operating Highlights for the year included:

• Generated $468,930 in operating cash flow in 2010 vs $9,105 in 2009, an increase of over 5,000 %.
• Year-end cash balance of over $500,000.
• First full year of operating profit (without operations related stock and options related gains/losses) of $380,702 representing a $199,358 improvement in operating profit (without operations related stock related gains/losses) vs. 2009.
• Revenues of $9.9 million which represents the best yearly revenues in Company History.
• Retail Revenues grew by approximately 290% as retail marketplace showed continued acceptance of For The Gourmet as a premium gourmet retailer.

(Additional Highlights)

• Continued expansion of Gluten Free line in both Foodservice and retail market.
• Significant expansion of line of products targeted to the healthcare, dietary and the overall nutritional foodservice market.
• Over 200+ additional Organic items added to product listing.
• Expanded depth of management team through the hire of a senior executive with over 25 year Foodservice experience.
• Working on new initiatives and program with largest partner to expand and broaden reach of Food Innovations' program.
• Exploring additional sales avenues and expansion of Food Innovations' role and product line with our largest customer.
• Increased presence within our largest customer's marketing and social media efforts.

Commenting on the results, Innovative Food Holdings' CEO, Sam Klepfish, stated, "We are very pleased with our 2010 results, which included strong growth in our core business as well as strong growth in retail sales through our For The Gourmet subsidiary."

Mr. Klepfish continued, "We continue to invest in the growth of our private label line of products and continue to be pleased with the acceptance of our Artistre products in the Foodservice and retail marketplace. I believe we are very well positioned to deliver continued growth through a variety of initiatives including the ability to quickly introduce new trend setting products and private label products to the market place leveraging our reputation for quality and service. We continue to strongly believe that the Company's long term strategy of working closely with our largest partner to grow Foodservice sales, allows us to continue to open additional new markets, and create strong growth and new product opportunities in both the Foodservice and retail space in 2011 and beyond."

By the end of 2010 the Company had the following profile:

• Manages the premier gourmet food program with one of the leading Foodservice providers in the United States.
• High quality demographic Foodservice customer base of over 16,000 professional chefs in some of the finest restaurants, hotels and other Foodservice establishments across the United States.
• Customer satisfaction rate amongst Professional Chefs of over 99%.
• An ability to leverage its market position and market reputation to introduce new private label products.
• A platform which enabled the retail and wholesale, purchase, sale and delivery of over 60,000 packages on a yearly basis. This represents a more then 35% increase vs the number of packages shipped in 2009, while maintaining a very high level of customer satisfaction.
• A platform which can handle significant additional sales growth at low incremental cost.
• Retail Selling relationships with Amazon.com, Nieman Marcus, Gigachef and others.
• Overall Sales of close to $10 million with strong operating profits and strong operating cash flow.
• A wholly owned retail subsidiary ([ For ] The Gourmet) which lists over 1,800 products, showed a 272 % increase in packages shipped in 2010, grew revenues by approximately 290% and experienced a high customer satisfaction level of over 98%.
• Approximately $500,000 cash in the bank at the end of 2010.
• Current market cap of approximately $1.4 million.

The Company believes that its shares are undervalued and given the opportunity the Company intends to purchase shares in the open market during 2011.

The Company is currently in negotiations with both its unsecured and secured noteholders to improve the balance sheet and reduce notes outstanding. Although no results can be assured, the Company believes that should the negotiations result in an agreement it could have a positive effect on reducing the Company's debt and improving its capital structure.

For The Gourmet Inc.

For The Gourmet's position in the marketplace continues to grow. The company has received several indications of interest of potential business relationships from a variety of sources, especially with respect to web related opportunities such as daily deal sites, flash sales, private sales, other web driven models and private label opportunities. For The Gourmet continues to negotiate these opportunities and will select those which it believes will be an optimal strategic fit.

In addition, the Company remains in discussions with one or more potential partners to test market a new gourmet related concept and program. Although there is no assurance that such discussions will result in a satisfactory relationship, the Company believes that should such discussions and test marketing be successful it would likely result in significant retail sales growth for the Company.

Currently, the Company is in the final stages of selecting a designer and platform for a new [ www.forthegourmet.com ] website. Although [ www.forthegourmet.com ] has experienced strong web traffic growth and sales increases over the last several months, the Company believes that a newly designed site with mobile capability would enable it to take full advantage of various social e-commerce related initiatives such as Facebook and Twitter amongst others, significantly improve its search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities and overall would be a strong step in the continued growth of [ www.forthegourmet.com ] in the premium gourmet market.

Finally, the Company has received initial expressions of interest with respect to an acquisition of For The Gourmet Inc. Although the Company currently does not have plans to sell For The Gourmet, the Company believes that For The Gourmet's position as a leader in the sourcing, purchasing, delivery and customer service make it a key value added component of many recent e-commerce business models. As such, the Company is currently exploring the possibility of a private investment directly into its, For The Gourmet, wholly owned subsidiary. Such an investment could potentially allow the Company additional shareholder growth and value creation opportunities through the For The Gourmet Subsidiary. Although there are no assurances that such an investment will occur, the Company currently believes that given the current high levels of Angel, Private equity and Venture capital transactions, should an investment occur it would likely not be correlated to the current market cap of Innovative Food Holdings.

About Innovative Food Holdings

Innovative Food Holdings, Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is in the business of marketing and selling high quality gourmet food.

Food Innovations, Inc., in partnership with one of the largest Foodservice distributors in the Unites States, provides over 4,000 of the highest quality gourmet food products to professional chefs throughout the United States. To learn more, visit the Food Innovations website at [ www.foodinno.com/ ]. Food Innovations is a wholly owned subsidiary of Innovative Food Holdings, Inc.

About For The Gourmet, Inc.

Through its website, and through additional sales channels, For The Gourmet Inc. provides the highest quality [ gourmet food ] products to the retail consumer market under the For The Gourmet line at [ www.forthegourmet.com ] and to the professional chef market under the For The Gourmet Pro line. To [ learn more ], visit the For The Gourmet website at [ http://www.forthegourmet.com/ ]. For The Gourmet Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: [ IVFH ])

This release contains certain forward-looking statements and information relating to Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") that are based on the current beliefs of the Company's management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, the Company. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events and are subject to certain assumptions, including those described in this release. Should one or more of these underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as should, could, anticipate, believe, intend, plan, might, potentially or expect. The Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.