Diamond Foods, the US snack maker and owner of upmarket crisp brand Kettle Chips, has raised its profit target for the second half of its fiscal year, despite booking a third-quarter loss.

The US firm, which bought Kettle in February for US$615m, said last week that the acquisition had pushed it to a net loss in the three months to the end of April.

Diamond reported a net loss of $4.3m after incurring costs of $10.2m linked to the Kettle acquisition during the quarter.

However, Diamond’s net sales jumped by almost 25% during the quarter to $138.7m, thanks in part to one month of sales from Kettle.

Diamond said it now expects non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.55-0.57 in the second half of its fiscal year. The company’s earlier forecast was $0.47-0.50.

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