"I'm thrilled to announce our 20th consecutive quarter of net sales growth, marking an impressive five consecutive years' worth of quarterly growth for Lifeway on the topline," commented Julie Smolyansky, President and CEO of Lifeway Foods.

"We continued this record year by delivering our second largest quarter ever with $46.1 million in net sales, up double-digits year-over-year, driven by the continued volume growth of our flagship drinkable Lifeway Kefir. We also saw growth in our cheese category, as our strategic sales investments have capitalized on the increasing consumer interest in soft cheese products, such as our Lifeway Farmer Cheese. Our effective sales and marketing investments continue to create demand, drive trial and accelerate velocities in our core offerings, as evidenced by our remarkable, volume-led results. Recently, our strawberry banana flavor of Lifeway Kefir gained placement at select locations of our largest retail customer, with an estimated total of 1,000 stores once resets are complete in the fourth quarter. We also anticipate that our ProBugs will gain incremental distribution at around 260 stores with a regional retailer in December, and our Farmer Cheese will gain placement with a large national retailer in an estimated 1400 stores by the end of the first quarter of 2025. We will continue to strategically evaluate opportunities to elevate the exposure of our core Lifeway offerings. Interest in protein-rich foods with probiotics and bioavailable nutrients like Lifeway Kefir and Farmer Cheese is higher than ever, and we believe that, in our 38-year history, our trajectory has never been stronger."

Smolyansky continued, "The strong third quarter performance extends our track record of execution on our growth plan to consolidate our market leading position. Compared to the same period 5 years ago, the year we initiated our Lifeway 2.0 Strategic Growth Plan, our year-to-date net sales and gross profit have grown by 98.4% and 115.3%, respectively, which has led to substantial shareholder value creation. We continued to deprioritize private label manufacturing during the quarter, focusing on our branded products to protect Lifeway's category dominance and visibility, streamline operations and further improve margins. As we continue to ship higher volumes of our Lifeway branded products, we will continue to realize manufacturing efficiencies and favorable fixed cost absorption, driving operating leverage across the business. The whole Lifeway team has contributed to our strong operational execution. We are on pace for record-breaking net sales in 2024, and I believe we are poised to continue this excellent momentum into the fourth quarter and 2025."

Net sales were $46.1 million for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024, an increase of $5.2 million or 12.7% from the same period in 2023. The net sales increase was primarily driven by higher volumes of our branded drinkable kefir.

Gross profit as a percentage of net sales was 25.7% for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024.