Top 10 Consumer Companies To Buy For 2015

Top 10 Consumer Companies To Buy For 2015: Calavo Growers Inc (CVGW)

Calavo Growers, Inc. (Calavo), incorporated on January 5, 2001, is a provider of value-added fresh food. The Company is engaged in the marketing and distributing avocados, prepared avocados, and other perishable foods allows them to deliver a wide array of fresh and prepared food products to food distributors, produce wholesalers, supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants on a worldwide basis. The Company procures avocados principally from California, Mexico, and Chile. Through its various operating facilities, it sort, pack, and/or ripen avocados, tomatoes and/or Hawaiian grown papayas. Additionally, it also produces salsa and prepares ready-to-eat produce and deli products. It distributes its products both domestically and internationally and reports its operations in three different business segments: Fresh products, Calavo Foods and Renaissance Food Group, LLC (RFG).

Fresh products

The Company's Fresh products business grades, size s, packs, cools, and ripens (if desired) avocados for delivery to its customers. It operates two packinghouses and three operating and distributing facilities that handle avocados across the United States.Calavo markets California avocados. In California, the growing area stretches from San Diego County to Monterey County, with the majority of the growing areas located approximately 100 miles north and south of Los Angeles County. The storage life of fresh avocados is limited. It generally ranges from one to four weeks, depending upon the maturity of the fruit, the growing methods used, and the handling conditions in the distribution chain. The Company sells avocados to a diverse group of supermarket chains, wholesalers, food service and other distributors, under the Calavo family of brand labels, as well as private labels. From time to time, some of its larger cust! omers seek short-term sales contracts that formalize their pricing and volume requirements. California avocados delivered to the Company's packinghouses are graded, size! d, packed, cooled and, frequently, ripened for delivery to customers. The Company imports avocados from Mexico, Chile, Peru, New Zealand and the Dominican Republic. It's diversified avocado sources provide a level of supply stability that may, over time, help solidify the demand for avocados among consumers in all markets it distribute to.

The Company also handles avocados from Chile, Peru and New Zealand, most of which are on a consignment basis with its growers. Pursuant to its joint venture agreement with M5, Calavo de Chile is the primary contact with its Chilean avocado sources. It has invested in the Aweta AFS (acoustic firmness sensor) technology and equipment. It has three Aweta systems in use in the United States, which, it believe, can effectively meet its customers' demand for conditioned fruit. It has developed various display techniques and packages that appeal to consumers and, in particular, impulse buyers. Some of its techniques includ e the bagging of avocados and the strategic display of the bags within the produce section of retail stores. The majority of its sales are generated from tomatoes and papayas. Tomatoes are primarily handled on a consigned basis, while papayas are handled on a pooling basis, similar to the California avocado pool previously described.

Calavo Foods

The Company's Calavo Foods business procures avocados, processes avocados into a wide variety of guacamole products, and distributes the processed product to its customers. All of its prepared avocado products shipped to North America are cold pasteurized and include both frozen and fresh guacamole. The Calavo Foods segment was originally conceived as a mechanism to stabilize the price of California avocados by reducing the volume of avocados available to the marketplace.The Company util! izes ultr! a high pressure machines which are designed to cold pasteurize its guacamole products. Using high pressure on ly, this procedure substantially destroys the cells of any b! acteria t! hat could lead to spoilage, food safety, or oxidation issues. Once the procedure is complete, its packaged guacamole is cased and shipped to various retail and food service customers throughout the markets its service. Its IQF line provides food service and retail customers with peeled avocado halves that are ripe and suitable for immediate consumption. These halves were frozen, packaged and shipped out of Mexicali to warehouses located in the United States., and, ultimately, to its customers. The Company's line of salsa will further diversify its product offerings and will be a natural complement to its ultra-high-pressure guacamole, as well as its Calavo tortilla chips.

RFG

The Company's RFG business produces markets and distributes nationally a portfolio of healthy, lifestyle products for consumers via the retail channel. RFG is a fresh-food company that produces, markets, and distributes nationally a portfolio of healthy, products for consu mers via the retail channel.RFG products range from fresh-cut fruit, ready-to-eat vegetables, recipe-ready vegetables and deli meat products. RFG sells under the labels of Garden Highway Fresh Cut, Garden Highway, and Garden Highway Chef Essentials to a wide range of customers. RFG products range from fresh-cut fruit, ready-to-eat vegetables, recipe-ready vegetables and deli meat products. RFG sells under the labels of Garden Highway Fresh Cut, Garden Highway, and Garden Highway Chef Essentials to a range of customers.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Just when you think the global warming (excuse me, climate change) warnings could not get anymore hysterical or goofier (Niagara Falls and the Great Lakes have frozen over after all), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc (NYSE: CMG) is sounding the alarm (which may rally all! of the S! ofritas vegan tofu eaters of America) over its potential threat to guacamole, but small cap avocado stock Calavo Growers, Inc (NASDAQ: CVGW) continues to grow investor returns no matter what the weather is doing and has outperformed PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (NYSEARCA: DBA). First and as noted by ThinkProgress.org, Chipotle Mexican Grill's latest Annual Form 8-K reported:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Monday

  Earnings Releases Expected: Sonic Corp (NASDAQ: SONC), Calavo Growers, Inc. (NASDAQ: CVGW), Zep Inc. (NYSE: ZEP) Economic Releases Expected:  Spanish services PMI, Italian services PMI, French services PMI, German services PMI, eurozone services PMI, British services PMI, eurozone investor confidence, German CPI, Australian trade balance

  Tuesday

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Calavo Growers (Nasdaq: CVGW  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-10-consumer-companies-to-buy-for-2015-4.html