Discrepancies in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters' Financial Reports

Discrepancies in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ Financial Reports

Just about every time I take a look at financial reports issued by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (NASDAQ: GMCR), I found troubling discrepancies in its numbers. In the past, I’ve described how certain so-called restated numbers which purportedly corrected accounting errors in its Timothy’s subsidiary don’t appear to add up. Now, I’ve found even more puzzling numbers which raise more questions of whether its restatements of financial reports were actually correct.

On September 28, 2010, Green Mountain disclosed that the SEC started an informal inquiry into its revenue accounting practices and relationship with a certain fulfillment vendor eight days earlier. On that same day, the company coincidently reported that it discovered an accounting error involving its K-Cup margin percentages during the preparation of its financial report for the period ended September 25, 2010. On November 19, 2010, Green Mountain disclosed that it found four new accounting errors. On that date, the company said it would restate its financial reports issued from 2007 to the period ended June 26, 2010 to correct its errors and conceded that there were material weaknesses in internal controls.

On December 9, 2010, Green Mountain Coffee issued its 10-K report for the year ended September 25, 2010. That 10-K report included details of its restatements for various periods. For example, the company reported the following restated segment numbers for the quarter ended March 27, 2010 (See page F-64 and click on image to enlarge):