This is a summary of the third quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by B&G Foods, Inc. (BGS: chart) on October 30, 2008.

Management:
– President and CEO: David Wenner
– CFO and EVP: of Finance Bob Cantwell

Key Investor Issues:

- Net income for the quarter was $2.9 million compared to $4.8 million a year ago. EPS decreased to $0.08 from $0.13 for the third quarter of 2007.
- Net sales for the third quarter of 2008 decreased 0.4% to $116.5 million from $117.0 million for the third quarter of 2007.
- B&G Foods projects that its fourth quarter EBITDA will be relatively flat as compared to its fourth quarter of 2007 EBITDA of $24.3 million.
- Full year 2008 EBITDA will be within the range of $90 to $91 million. B&G Foods projects that its full year 2009 EBITDA will be within the range of $95 to $98 million.

Third Quarter Highlights:

Net sales decreased $0.5 million or 0.4% to $116.5 million for the third quarter of 2008 compared to $117 million for the third quarter of 2007. Price increases that were recently implemented improved net sales by $4.7 million during the third quarter of 2008. These pricing gains were offset by a decrease in net sales of $5.2 million attributable to unit volume decline. A substantial portion of the unit volume decline was attributable to the poor maple syrup crop in Canada in 2008 that resulted in an industry wide shortfall of maple syrup and a management decision to eliminate unprofitable sales to certain customers of private label pickles and peppers.

Net sales of Maple Grove Farms pure maple syrup and the company’s private label pickles and peppers declined in the third quarter of 2008 by $1.4 million and $0.2 million respectively. In the case of pure maple syrup, this decline was attributable to the unit volume decline partially offset by pricing gains.

Gross profit decreased $7.6 million for the third quarter of 2008 or 19.7% to $30.7 million from $38.3 million in the third quarter of 2007.

Gross profit expressed as a percentage of net sales decreased 6.3% of net sales to 26.4% for the third quarter of 2008 from 32.7% in the third quarter of 2007. This decrease in gross profit expressed as a percentage of net sales was primarily due to increased costs of wheat, maple syrup, corn, packaging, transportation and sweeteners, partially offset by
$4.7 million in sales price increases.

Sales, marketing and distribution expenses decreased $2.3 million or 17.6% to $10.8 million for the third quarter of 2008 compared to $13.1 million for the third quarter of 2007.

This decrease was primarily due to a decrease in consumer marketing of $1.3 million and a decrease in brokerage and employee compensation of $0.9 million. These expenses expressed as a percentage of net sales decreased to 9.3% in the third quarter of 2008 from 11.2% in the third quarter of 2007.

General and administrative expenses decreased $1.3 million or 38.7% to $2.1 million for the third quarter of 2008 compared to $3.4 million in the third quarter of 2007.

This decrease was primarily due to the result of a decrease in compensation expense and bonus accruals of $1.6 million partially offset by increase in professional fees of $0.2 million.

Operating income decreased 19.5% to $16.2 million for the third quarter of 2008 from $20.2 million in the third quarter of 2007.

- Net interest expense decreased $0.8 million or 6.6% to $11.6 million for the third quarter of 2008 from $12.4 million in the third quarter of 2007.
- Interest expense for the third quarter of 2008 includes a reduction of $1.5 million relating to the unrealized gain on the interest rate swap offset by a reclassification of $0.1 million of the amount recorded in cumulative other comprehensive loss relating to the swap and reduction in interest income and capitalized interest on qualifying assets based on the effective interest rate.

EBITDA decreased 16.3% to $20.1 million for the third quarter of 2008 compared to $24 million in the third quarter of 2007.

- Earnings per share of Class A common stock was $0.08 for the third quarter of 2008 as compared to $0.13 in the third quarter of 2007.
- Capital expenditures for the third quarter of 2008 were $0.8 million and are $9.8 million year to date.

During the fourth quarter of 2008, the company expects to incur an additional $1.2 million in capital expenditures for a total of $11 million.

Cash flow before dividends for 2008 is expected to be approximately $31.2 million. This projection is based on the projective EBITDA for 2008 of between $90 million and $91 million which includes the impact of estimated severance and termination charges of $0.8 million the company expects to incur in the fourth quarter of 2008.