Looking beyond last year s pandemic sales surge, sales for the quarter increased 6.7% over 2019
Because 2020 s sales were so extremely unusual, United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) knew it would not surpass those figures, but the company was still bullish on its third quarter earnings the first quarter to lap last year’s pandemic-spurred sales particularly when compared to fiscal 2019.
UNFI reported net sales of $6.62 billion in Q3, which ended May 1, a drop of 5.9% year over year but an increase of 6.7% over the third quarter of 2019. We calculated this by adding the year-over-year growth rate to the prior year-over-year growth rate, and we believe it to be an appropriate way to view sales this quarter, given the unprecedented activity in last year s third quarter, said president Chris Testa in an earnings call with analysts Wednesday morning.