It's merely coincidence that some of the biggest ice cream makers rhyme with the word liars. From Breyer's to Dreyer's (NASDAQ:DRYR), one just shouldn't have read much into Dreyer's announcement last week that it was delaying its financials until this week. It wasn't trying to hide melted messes as much as trying to give its vanilla bean counters a little more time to add everything up.
Over the summer, Dreyer's completed its merger with Nestle's (NASDAQ:NSRGY) stateside ice cream operations. While taking on Haagen-Dazs and Nestle's namesake line of frozen novelties diluted equity ownership -- Nestle now owns roughly two-thirds of the combined company -- it also helped assure that Dreyer's will always be walking with a big clout stick when it comes to widening freezer space at grocery store chains.
With Nestle's help, revenues nearly tripled to $515 million in the third quarter. The company did post a charge-laden loss for the period of $0.71 a share.
While investors tend to look at food stocks such as Heinz (NYSE:HNZ), Campbell (NYSE:CPB), and ConAgra (NYSE:CAG) as slow yet steady producers, Dreyer's can be called many things, but vanilla isn't one of them. The stock has been a five-bagger over the past five years. If you caught this summer's Emperors of Ice Cream edition of Dueling Fools, you may already have recognized the potential of playing for just desserts. The sector's consolidation is going to be even better news for the remaining players as they will be better suited to resist discounting pressures or fret over shelf space.
Will "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream stocks" be the market's new mantra? Probably not, but you have to admire the combined company's potential. Now that's the scoop.
Counting calories? Does that make rocky road a rocky road indeed? What are some healthy substitutes for ice cream? All this and more -- in the Fools Fighting Fat discussion board. Only on Fool.com.
