Steven Spinner
Analyst · Ed Aaron with RBC Capital Markets
Thank you, Scott, and good morning, everyone. Welcome again to UNFI's Second Quarter Fiscal 2012 and Midyear Results. Almost 3 years ago, UNFI began a drive toward building market share, coming together as one company, being operationally excellent and further driving our cultural commitment to sustainability and philanthropy. We refer to this strategy internally as MOOS, Market Share, One Company, Operational Excellence and Sustainability, and I'd like to make a couple of comments regarding our process -- progress.
We have demonstrated terrific positive momentum toward building market share as evidenced by our over 15% increase in sales both for the second quarter and for the first half of fiscal 2012 versus prior year. This success was driven by a relentless focus on adding new customers, expanding existing customer relationships and building the infrastructure for new channels and categories of products. Market share improvements were especially positive in our core UNFI distribution businesses, as well as our Albert's Organics and UNFI Canada divisions.
All 3 of our distribution channels exhibited strong year-over-year growth, led by our supermarket channel which saw over 32% growth. Additionally, our retail category management and iUNFI technology continued to demonstrate UNFI's very unique and capable expertise throughout our product categories and customer base.
Continued improvement in the industry and sustained inflation over 4% helped our overall revenue numbers. However, we carefully watch a phenomenon aptly named The Rule of 4s very carefully. When inflation continues over 4%, combined with sustained fuel price at over $4 per gallon, based on history, we know this can contribute to a consumer slowdown. Both inflation and fuel are very close to 4 in each case. On balance however, despite rising fuel prices and inflation, this is a terrific time to be in our industry. Consumers have a passion for specialty and organic foods, as shown by demand for the products we distribute at a rate that significantly exceeds the rate of growth in conventional food.
In particular, growth in organic produce, value-pack foods, organic dairy and grains have experienced significant growth. More and more families are buying a broader array of our products, which we believe will continue and is evidenced in our revision to fiscal 2012 revenue guidance to a range of $5.11 billion to $5.17 billion.
We have also made great progress towards coming together as One Company from benefit plans to compensation procurement, warehouse operations and category management, UNFI is truly taking advantage of its scale to drive down costs and standardize processes and practices.
With respect to operational excellence, while delayed, the deployment of our new warehouse management system is back on track for a fiscal 2012 fourth quarter implementation in our Ridgefield, Washington facility.
Delivering operational excellence is what will drive our long-term operating margin expansion. During the last 12 months, we successfully implemented operational labor management throughout our UNFI distribution centers, nationalized risk management, food safety and have completed the organizational development of our general managers.
Additionally, through the centralization of our fleet management, we have brought down the cost of equipment and succeeded in driving up our fleet utilization. Our One Company and operational excellence initiatives contributed to driving down expenses as a percent of net sales, excluding special items, by 56 basis points versus the prior year and 69 basis points sequentially versus Q1.
To provide some perspective, our warehouse operations during the quarter delivered a 14 basis point improvement in expenses as a percentage of sales versus prior year, while our transportation realized an increase of only 2 basis points as a percentage of sales, despite considerably higher fuel costs and significant changes in routes made necessary to accommodate customer onboarding.
At the same time, warehouses expenses declined and our productivity increased as a result of our implementation of our national labor management standards. The stakes are quite large for us here, as is the upside. For example, our company-wide increase of just one case selected per hour equates to over $1 million in savings.
As a reminder, these improvements took place at a time when we were also divesting our non-foods business and transferring the remaining specialty business from our Harrison, Arkansas facility to other UNFI distribution centers. It is also important to note that the second quarter is quite important to us. The Thanksgiving and holiday and Christmas lift requires careful planning and execution. During this quarter, UNFI delivered its highest service level to customers across North America since I've been associated with our company. To accomplish this, we made a conscious effort to increase inventory to support the needs of our customers, and the investment really paid off despite a $1.7 million increase in shrink associated with this inventory build.
Our strong service level was accomplished through the dedication of thousands of UNFI associates who worked around the clock during the holidays to ensure our high order fill and on-time deliveries.
Our second quarter of fiscal 2012 was the fifth quarter of our previously disclosed 4- to 6-quarter window of issues related to new customer onboarding, declining gross margin and pressure on our operating margin expansion. I am really pleased with our 17.5% increase in net income versus prior year and quite impressed with our team's ability to utilize operational improvements to increase our operating margin by 6 basis points as a percentage of sales in the quarter.
Despite the very strong increase in earnings, we remain quite focused on operating leverage to increase our operating margin. These continued improvements will drive our revision of earnings per share for fiscal 2012 to a range of $1.79 to $1.86 per diluted share.
Continued shift away from full-service programs to partial or no service models and customer mix shifts will continue to cause disruption to our gross margin, which was down 48 basis points versus the prior year quarter.
Let me add, I am very proud of our continued focus on sustainability and philanthropy. Through LEED-certified distribution centers, solar power, hydrogen fuel cells, natural gas powered tractors and green teams throughout North America, our people proved that UNFI is a leader in delivering a strong return to our shareholders while staying true to our mission and belief in doing what's right for the environment and our constituents.
Looking forward, our strategy around MOOS will continue and endure. In addition, we will continue focusing our efforts on new business, building out our organizational development, concentrating on selective M&A and a ramp-up of standards to standardize our operational and systems platforms.
Also with our 15-plus percent sales growth during fiscal 2012, we're going to need new buildings and expansions. Construction will likely begin with the consolidation of our 2 Denver facilities in fiscal 2013, followed by several building expansions and a new Northeast Center in fiscal 2014.
Our strategy has come together, helped by strong demand for our product, terrific people and a wonderful culture here at UNFI, our future is bright. Now I'll turn the call over to Mark Shamber, our Chief Financial Officer, to review the highlights of our second quarter and first half 2012. Mark?