PROVIDENCE - United Natural Foods Inc. on Tuesday said its fourth-quarter loss narrowed to $37 million, or 63 cents a share, from a loss of $68 million, or $1.15 a share, a year ago thanks in part to a 10% jump in revenue. The company's share price was up 24% in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. For the full fiscal 2024, the company reported a loss of $112 million, compared with a $24 million profit a year ago. The per share loss for the full year was $1.89, compared with a 40-cent profit a year ago. CEO Sandy Douglas said fourth-quarter revenue jumped to $8.15 billion, which beat analyst estimates and last year's sales of $7.41 billion for the same quarter. "We delivered fourth-quarter results that drove fiscal 2024 performance to the upper end of our previously provided outlook," he said. "This capped a year in which we generated four consecutive quarters of sequentially increasing profitability, significantly strengthened our foundation and built momentum as we enter fiscal 2025." Douglas said fiscal year improvements were driven by "strong same customer growth, [an extension of] our agreement with our largest customer ... approximately $150 million in benefits from structural efficiency ... significantly reduced shrink, [lengthening] the maturity on our term loan and onboarding our new president and chief financial officer, Matteo Tarditi." UNFI segment revenue in the 2024 fiscal year: * The company said it logged $12.9 billion in sales to chain stores, a 1.2% increase year over year. * Sales to independent retailers totaled $7.6 billion, a 1.2% loss from one year prior. * Sales to "supernatural" retailers, including Whole Foods Market Inc., totaled $6.9 billion, an 8.9% increase year over year. * Retail sales totaled $2.43 billion, a loss of 1.8% year over year. * Sales classified as "other" totaled $2.55 billion, an increase of 3.1% from one year prior. Looking ahead, Douglas said an ongoing financial review is expected to help "drive accelerating performance" while reducing net leverage by "optimizing" its distribution center network and "driving efficiencies across the organization."