Claims any duty to update any of these forward-looking statements except as required by law, all forward-looking statements attributable to the company are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements as well as others made in this conference call. You should evaluate all forward-looking statements made by the company in the context of these risks and uncertainties. Having said that I would now like to turn the call over to Jim Kras, Chief Executive Officer of Edible Garden. Jim?
Thanks Ted, good morning and thank you to everyone for joining us today.
We are pleased to report another strong quarter highlighted by an increase of $687,000 in gross profit for Q3 2024 compared to the same period last year, our gross profit margin experienced significant growth reaching 27.1% this quarter. This significant improvement reflects the consistent margin growth that has fueled our progress in recent quarters while marginally impacting our revenue growth in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Furthermore, our gross profit for the first nine months of 2024 surged by $1.7 million. An impressive 324% increase over prior year.
Our core business and fundamentals are stronger than ever as demonstrated by a 55% increase in sales of cut herbs for the first nine months of 2024. Compared to 2023 revenue for the first nine months ended September 30th, 2024, showed a slight year over year increase.
Third quarter revenue for 2024 was down from the same period last year driven by a strategic decision to phase out of lower margin products and categories. For example, in connection with phasing out our legacy floral business at the at the Edible Garden Heartland facility in Grand Rapids. We have installed new production lines to expand our capacity to drive the growth of our higher margin products.
We believe these initiatives will help accelerate achieving our goal of sustainable cash flow and profitability.
We also strengthened our balance sheet with our September S1 offering raising approximately $5.65 million in gross proceeds.
Part of these funds went went towards paying down $3.2 million in debt due 2025 helping to reduce our leverage and move us closer to achieving positive free cash flow.
Additionally, we invested in working capital ahead of the fourth quarter holiday season, putting us in a strong position to meet customer demand and peak season sales.
Our partnership with Walmart continues to evolve in meaningful ways including the debut of our sustainably grown Hydro Basil featured in a custom designed Basil station that fits seamlessly into Walmart's produce section without disrupting current planograms.
Additionally, we launched Edible Gardens Vitamin Way lines of whey and plant-based protein powders on Walmart marketplace. This not only enhances accessibility for our Vitamin Way products but also lays the groundwork to expand our offerings on the platform with new products. We are confident our innovative products will resonate with the evolving taste of an expanded consumer audience. We believe this deepening collaboration with Walmart positions, edible garden revenue growth in 2024 and beyond.
For our Pepper Flavor line of USDA Organic Fermented and sustainable line of gourmet sauces experienced sales growth in the third quarter of 2024 as we continue to add to our existing distribution network, which includes prominent retailers such as Target Whole Foods, Meyer M Williams, dear BGS Woodman's and distributors like KeHE and UNFI and more.
According to research and markets, the global sauces and condiments market is projected to grow from 173 billion in 2021 to 240 billion in 2028. And pulp is poised to meet the rising demand for bold unique flavors that take meals from bland of bulk.
We also introduced our innovative kick sports nutrition line, a premium range, a range of performance products designed for today's health conscious athletes. KIC addresses the evolving needs of athletes who prioritize the quality impact of their nutritional intake. According to IMA Group, the sports nutrition market is expected to grow from $55 billion in 2023 to 103 billion by 2032. Fueled by an increasing demand for clean labels, personalized products that enhance performance, cater dietary preferences and offer convenient on the go options.
With over 25 years of experience in sports nutrition and a track record of successful brand launches like body fortress, pure protein and matrix. I'm confident that K sports nutrition is more than just a new product line.
It's going to set a standard in the industry. Our vision to redefine the category by delivering innovative purpose driven solutions that are better for you that truly address the evolving needs of athletes is more important than ever. Edible Garden also receives grants from the USDA organic Certification program, providing financial key support to help offset the cost of organic certification, processing and handling and certifications. These funds will not only reduce expenses associated with maintaining our organic certification at our belvedere, New Jersey and Grand Rapids facilities but also support research and development for new product innovation.
As leaders in controlled environment agriculture, we are deeply committed to producing local organic and sustainable products, making organic certification a valuable asset for the business.
These grants further strengthen our partnership with the USDA and align seamlessly with the company's zero waste. Inspired mission by utilizing these funds to drive R&D for new or new organic offerings. We look forward to exploring new opportunities to work together and to continue to lead the way in sustainable agriculture ensuring that we make a lasting positive contribution to the industry and the communities we serve.
I would now like to turn the call over to Kostas Dafoulas, Our Interim Chief Financial Officer who will review the financial results for the three months ended, September 30th, 2024, Kostas?
Kostas Dafoulas
Thanks Jim and good morning, everyone turning to our third quarter results revenue totaled 2.6 million compared to $3 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2023, The decrease was primarily driven by our strategic shift away from the sale of lower margin products and impact from weather events. Specifically, our strategic decision to eliminate the lettuce and floral categories accounted for a decrease of 597,000 in revenue. The impact of hurricane Helene on our nutraceutical products resulted in the shift of $215,000 of revenue from the third to the fourth quarter.
Cost of goods sold totaled $1.9 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2024, compared to $3.3 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2023.
The decrease was primarily driven by our seasonally low sales in the current quarter as well as the elimination of the use of large third party growers that previously made up a material portion of our cost of goods sold.
We saw continued strength in our gross profit margin as a result of this strategic decision move away from low margin categories. We delivered gross profit margin for Q3 2024 of 27%. Our second straight quarter positive double digit margin selling general and administrative expenses were $2.2 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2024, compared to $2.4 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2023. The decrease was primarily due to a reduction in labor costs and professional fees. As we continue to find efficiencies in our cost structure.
Net loss was $2.1 million or $0.65 per share for the three months ended September 30th, 2024, compared to a net loss of $2.4 million or $13.83 per share for the three months ended September 30th, 2023.
Improvement in net loss was primarily driven by the gross profit margin expansion and lower SG and a offset by other expenses in closing. We are proud of the hard work. Our team has put into improving our growth margin and the strong execution we experienced this quarter. The Q3 results demonstrate that our strategic shift in product mix and reduce reliance on third party growers is paying off and we remain committed to a disciplined financial approach with that operator. Please open the line for questions.
Operator
Thank you very much. At this time, we will be conducting our question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Now a confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the queue. You may press star two. If you would like to remove your question from the queue for any participants using speaker equipment, it might be necessary to pick up your handset before you press the keys.
Please wait a moment whilst we poll for questions.
Thank you very much. Your first question is coming from Anthony Vendetti of the Maxim Group. Anthony your line of life.
Anthony Vendetti
Thank you.
Good morning. So let me you, you've reduced significantly contract growers which obviously, you know, improve your gross margin significantly. So, We're glad to see that. But as you move into this quarter that we're in right now, this is your busy season. Are are you able to handle the demand this season?
With fewer contract growers than last season or do you have to rely on them to meet the demand?
Jim Kras
So, hey, Anthony, good morning. So the answer is we don't need the contract growers to service our demand. And look, we focused on infrastructure GP improvement and the fundamentals of the business in the last two quarters. And it shows in, you know, sequential quarter to quarter, you know, GP improvement and dramatic improvement at that. That's a result of bringing a vertically integrating the facilities and adding more capacity. So, you know, we did, you know, this was, I believe in the press release and in my opening script, we put in, you know, another production line state of the art made the investment there in Grand Rapids. You know, I think what you see now is that, you know, a strong signal to our retail partners that not only can we handle what we currently have, we can take on a lot more and we can push out a lot more in the way of units. So our capacity is only sort of, you know, is only limited by our ability to process and putting in, you know, more and more lines as we continue to grow the business. And right now, you know, we've got significant capacity Q4 is shaping up to be potentially our best quarter ever as a function of having that ability to do so. And now the platform is set, the fundamentals have, you know, are set and you know, we can take on, you know, more herbs, more new pro more new products, even more warehousing and cross stocking that once again, add to that top line. So, you know, by trying to move out of these other products that are, you know, that were sort of, you know, legacy products that just really didn't give us what we needed from a, from a GP standpoint, we now can focus and build that core business. So we're ready to run and, and, and we're pretty excited about it and, you know, it was a lot of hard work, excuse me this past quarter to get into a position in order to, you know, get set for you know, for the volume that's coming.
Anthony Vendetti
Okay, great. And then can, can you just further quantify the impact from the hurricanes in Florida, how much of that revenue in total has moved from the third quarter to the fourth quarter?
Jim Kras
Well, it was 215000 approximately, that was driven by a relationship that we have with a major big box price smart. We supply a Nutrisa line for them. That business has been growing, considered over the last six months as they've been, you know, watching what we're doing and I've had a relationship with them for decades. So they understand the investment we're making in that segment of the business. And so they out of the port of Miami. So, unfortunately, we had a hurricane at the end of the quarter and they closed the ports while people were evacuating and they weren't bringing in any trucking. So once again, you know, you know, you know, 200,000 plus that gets pushed into the, the Q4 that we didn't benefit from. So, and you know, in the Q4, you know, there's obviously additionally or additional orders that are, you know, keyed up and that will ship by the end of the year as well on top of that, you know, 200 for price mark. So that's kind of unfortunately impacted it, you know, trust me, I wanted the trucks to roll and you know, I can't control weather.
Anthony Vendetti
Sure, of course. So as we look to 2025 what, what kind of growth can we expect from the sports nutrition line?
Jim Kras
Well, you know, as I had mentioned, you know, earlier, look, this is a great category. I grew up in the category I worked at, you know, at some big businesses, you know, Nations Bound being one of them, where I ran that part of the business for them and relaunched metric developed from concept Body Fortress, which is a, you know, $150 million line and, and also relaunched pure protein, which is probably another $100 million line. So, you know, point being and they're still around 15 years later, you know, the trends are towards better for you. We have the right formulas. We have a fantastic partner Neutra com that we're just continuing to deepen our relationship with. They were the originators of what are some of the, some of the products like the metrics white box which, you know, started the industry 2,530 years ago. With that said, you know, we're already looking at commitments for KIC and we haven't even gone to full scale production. You know, we're driving a partnership with Amazon to look to potentially coincide the launch with them. It was just with them last week. And so for us, we're expecting some significant growth. Obviously, you know, we're going to have to make product and a lot of that you'll see rolling out towards the tail end of Q1.
You think you'll see a launch at a major big box that we have a, we have a deep relationship with, on traditional retail and like I said, I think it will coincide with, with Amazon on that and then roll out with the likes of price Mart internationally. So I couldn't be more excited about it. Like I said, you know, I think putting behind us fixing the core business, you know, and you know, getting the, the greenhouses where they can, they can operate and operate like manufacturing we're there. So now we can start focusing on a lot of these new products. We've got a line of past herbs that we're launching, in Q1 as well. So, you know, next year, you know, I'm pushing my sales team to say, look, let's you know, let's start looking at not only Q1 and with these launches, but what are we doing to drive the business, you know, second half of next year and so I couldn't be more excited about where we are. I feel like it's been a pretty hard, real, pretty tough journey to get here. But, you know, we solved a lot of problems that, you know, our others couldn't, you know, we were watching a lot of our competition on the a side sort of, you know, crap out and, you know, we're positioned for more and you know, the calls have been coming in on the all the businesses to, you know, to ship. And so I, like I said it's been tough but I'm excited. I mean, it truly is. I mean, so I hope that that answers that question, but I'm sorry, go ahead.
Anthony Vendetti
Yeah, last question on the gross margin side. It sounds like you, you know, particularly lettuce, but maybe there was other low margin products you, you've exited, was that leverage from, from exiting the low margin products such as lettuce fully reflected in the third quarter or is there additional leverage or ability to increase the gross margin from, from the level that you're at?
Jim Kras
Well, I think, look, I did that mean for us, you know, it's all about, you know, improving our margins and the efficiencies that we're driving currently across the whole supply chain leveraging, you know, every tool that we have in the toolbox is coming down to bear. And so to answer your question is, you know, you should see that gross profit continue to expand as we get, you know, stronger and yeah, I mean, between, you know, look, we're not fully out of the lettuce business, we're just not in the low or no margin lettuce business that we sort of have the service some of the customers when we first started the business, you know, the floral business for us. Look, it's an interesting business but it's just not our core business and, you know, by just, you know, kind of pushing that aside and, and kind of eliminating it and focusing on the food business, which is what we're in. Once again, you know, nothing against florals and flowers, you know, I like them. But, you know, at the end of the day, that's really wasn't our core business. We adhered to our commitment to the distributors that we took on when we bought the facility in Grand Rapids and, you know, we executed well and everybody moved on and I'm sure if I wanted to do floor on the road, I can always pick up the phone and call them, but not our core business. It was a drag. I don't like the competing crops in the greenhouse for a multitude of reasons. Now, we've cleared the deck. I got super capacity place. Looks gorgeous. I just had Myer down there shooting it the other day for social media. You know, we're ready to run. And I don't have to worry about that, that business anymore and it, you know, impacted the margin because it was just labor intensive for what it was and moving pots and it was just an old business that, you know, has never really been sort of automated and it's seasonal and it's just not what we wanted to do and what I want to do. It's all about core business, fundamentals, new products, leveraging a $5000 an hour and to put more of the trucks that are running on produce, getting more on those trucks, improving the logistics. And like I said, you see it where we are right now and we just got started in the last, you know, quarter or two. I mean, and frankly, you know, we've been able to get some real strong players to come in and help us really you know, refine, refine this so I couldn't be more excited about it.
Anthony Vendetti
Excellent. Alright. Thanks for all that call, Jim. I'll hop back in.
Jim Kras
I appreciate it. Alright. Thank you, Anthony. Take care.
Operator
Thank you very much. Just a reminder that if anyone has any questions, you can join the key by pressing star one on your phone keypad. Now don't appear to have anyone else waiting for questions. Just hang on a second in case someone else does jump in.
Okay. I don't think we have any further questions. I will now hand back over to the management team for closing comments.
Jim Kras
Well, thank you for joining us today. We believe we have successfully streamlined our business removing elements that previously constrained revenue growth, core operations and fundamentals are now healthy and performing well based on current trends. We are confident that the fourth quarter of 2024 will display significant growth in both margin and revenue potentially making marking one of the strongest quarters in our company's history with a solid foundation, a robust infrastructure in place. We are well positioned not only to achieve strong results in the coming quarters but to also drive sustained growth and long term value for our shareholders.
Operator
Thank you very much. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation. Thank you.
Editor^ Portion of this transcript marked (technical difficulty) indicate an audio problem. The missing text will be supplied if a replay becomes available.