B&G Foods Declares Quarterly Dividend

PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 9, 2022-- B&G Foods, Inc. (NYSE: BGS) announced today that its Board of Directors declared yesterday a quarterly cash dividend of $0.19 per share of common stock. The dividend is payable on January 30, 2023 to stockholders of record as of December 30, 2022.

With yesterday’s action, the new intended dividend rate for the Company’s common stock is $0.76 per share per annum. At the closing market price of the common stock on November 8, 2022, the new intended dividend rate represents an annualized yield of 5.0%. This is the 73^rd consecutive quarterly dividend declared by the Board of Directors since B&G Foods’ initial public offering in October 2004.

Casey Keller, President and Chief Executive Officer of B&G Foods, stated, “The new dividend rate is sustainable in both the short- and long-term, consistent with the Company’s desire to provide stockholders with an attractive and reliable return on their investment, and consistent with our commitment to reduce our leverage. In large part because of the current inflationary environment and rising interest rates under our credit agreement, the prior dividend rate resulted in substantially all our excess cash being paid in dividends. The new dividend rate approved yesterday by our Board of Directors, while still paying a substantial portion of our excess cash to stockholders, provides for a significant portion of our excess cash to be retained in our business for debt repayment or other business needs that may arise.”

Although the Board of Directors has reduced the dividend rate under the Company’s dividend policy, the Board of Directors has reaffirmed the policy itself. The Company’s dividend policy reflects a basic judgment that its stockholders are better served when the Company distributes a substantial portion of its cash available to pay dividends to them instead of retaining it in the business. Under this policy, a substantial portion of the cash generated by the Company in excess of operating needs, interest and principal payments on indebtedness, capital expenditures sufficient to maintain its properties and other assets is in general distributed as regular quarterly cash dividends (up to the intended dividend rate as determined by the Board of Directors) and not retained by the Company.

About B&G Foods, Inc.
Based in Parsippany, New Jersey, B&G Foods and its subsidiaries manufacture, sell and distribute high-quality, branded shelf-stable and frozen foods across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. With B&G Foods’ diverse portfolio of more than 50 brands you know and love, including Back to Nature, B&G, B&M, Bear Creek, Cream of Wheat, Crisco, Dash, Green Giant, Las Palmas, Le Sueur, Mama Mary’s, Maple Grove Farms, New York Style, Ortega, Polaner, Spice Islands and Victoria, there’s a little something for everyone. For more information about B&G Foods and its brands, please visit www.bgfoods.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical or current fact constitute “forward-looking statements.” The forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, without limitation, statements related to our dividend policy and our new intended dividend rate, the sustainability of the new dividend rate, and our ability to pay dividends at the new intended dividend rate and still have remaining excess cash available for debt repayment or other business needs. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unknown factors that could cause the actual results of B&G Foods to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements labeled with the terms “believes,” “belief,” “expects,” “projects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “assumes,” “could,” “should,” “estimates,” “potential,” “seek,” “predict,” “may,” “will” or “plans” and similar references to future periods to be uncertain and forward-looking. Factors that may affect actual results include, without limitation: the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company’s business, including, without limitation, the ability of the Company and its supply chain partners to continue to operate manufacturing facilities, distribution centers and other work locations without material disruption, and to procure ingredients, packaging and other raw materials when needed despite disruptions in the supply chain or labor shortages, the duration of social distancing and stay-at-home and work-from-home policies and recommendations, and whether, and the extent to which, additional waves or variants of COVID-19 will affect the United States and the rest of North America, and the extent to which macroeconomic conditions resulting from the pandemic and the pace of the subsequent recovery may impact consumer eating and shopping habits; the Company’s substantial leverage; the effects of rising costs for and/or decreases in the supply of the Company’s commodities, ingredients, packaging, other raw materials, distribution and labor; crude oil prices and their impact on distribution, packaging and energy costs; the Company’s ability to successfully implement sales price increases and cost saving measures to offset any cost increases; intense competition, changes in consumer preferences, demand for the Company’s products and local economic and market conditions; the Company’s continued ability to promote brand equity successfully, to anticipate and respond to new consumer trends, to develop new products and markets, to broaden brand portfolios in order to compete effectively with lower priced products and in markets that are consolidating at the retail and manufacturing levels and to improve productivity; the Company’s ability to recruit and retain senior management and a highly skilled and diverse workforce at the Company’s corporate offices, manufacturing facilities and other locations despite a very tight labor market and changing employee expectations as to fair compensation, an inclusive and diverse workplace, flexible working and other matters; the risks associated with the expansion of the Company’s business; the Company’s possible inability to identify new acquisitions or to integrate recent or future acquisitions or the Company’s failure to realize anticipated revenue enhancements, cost savings or other synergies from recent or future acquisitions; the Company’s ability to successfully complete the integration of recent or future acquisitions into the Company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system; tax reform and legislation, including the effects of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the U.S. CARES Act, and any future tax reform or legislation; the Company’s ability to access the credit markets and the Company’s borrowing costs and credit ratings, which may be influenced by credit markets generally and the credit ratings of the Company’s competitors; unanticipated expenses, including, without limitation, litigation or legal settlement expenses; the effects of currency movements of the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso as compared to the U.S. dollar; the effects of international trade disputes, tariffs, quotas, and other import or export restrictions on the Company’s international procurement, sales and operations; future impairments of the Company’s goodwill and intangible assets; the Company’s ability to protect information systems against, or effectively respond to, a cybersecurity incident or other disruption; the Company’s ability to successfully implement its sustainability initiatives and achieve its sustainability goals, and changes to environmental laws and regulations; the Company’s ability to successfully transition the operations of the Portland, Maine manufacturing facility to third-party co-manufacturing facilities and existing Company manufacturing facilities without significant disruption in production or customer service, and the Company’s ability to achieve anticipated productivity improvements and cost savings; and other factors that affect the food industry generally , including: recalls if products become adulterated or misbranded, liability if product consumption causes injury, ingredient disclosure and labeling laws and regulations and the possibility that consumers could lose confidence in the safety and quality of certain food products; competitors’ pricing practices and promotional spending levels; fluctuations in the level of the Company’s customers’ inventories and credit and other business risks related to the Company’s customers operating in a challenging economic and competitive environment; and the risks associated with third-party suppliers and co-packers, including the risk that any failure by one or more of the Company’s third-party suppliers or co-packers to comply with food safety or other laws and regulations may disrupt the Company’s supply of raw materials or certain finished goods products or injure the Company’s reputation. The forward-looking statements contained herein are also subject generally to other risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in B&G Foods’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including under Item 1A, “Risk Factors” in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and in its subsequent reports on Forms 10-Q and 8‑K. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. B&G Foods undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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Source: B&G Foods, Inc.