Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Can you please give me your opinion of Premium Brands for income and gains in the specialty food sector? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Premium Brands Holdings Corp., $24.28, symbol PBH on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 22.2 million; Market cap: $538.0 million; www.premiumbrandsholdings.com), took its current form on July 22, 2009, when it converted to a corporation from an income trust. Before the changeover, it was called Premium Brands Income Fund. The company operates through two divisions: Retail supplies 63% of Premium Brands’ revenue and mainly serves food sellers, such as delicatessens, specialty grocery chains, convenience stores, national and regional grocery chains and warehouse clubs. It also sells to cafés that offer premade foods, like sandwiches, wraps and pastries. This business’s brands include Harvest, Grimm’s, Freybe, Hygaard, Quality Fast Foods, Hempler’s, Made-Rite Meat Products, Creekside, Stuyver’s Bakestudio, Duso’s, SK Food Group, Deli Chef, SJ Irvine and Piller’s. The Foodservice segment (37% of revenue) serves restaurants, concessions, bars, caterers, hotels, schools and hospitals. Its banners consist of Centennial Foodservice, B&C Food Distributors, Harlan Fairbanks, Worldsource, E1even, Wescadia, Maximum Seafood and Hub City Fisheries. Premium Brands continues to expand by…