ATCHISON, KAS. — MGP Ingredients, Inc. sustained a loss of $4,929,000 in the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2013, which compared with income of $1,624,000, equal to 9c per share on the common stock, in fiscal 2012. Last year’s results were affected by the record high corn basis during the third quarter, increased severance costs and approximately $5.5 million in costs related to a proxy contest.

Net sales for the company decreased 3.3% to $323,264,000 from $334,335,000 in fiscal 2012.

Pre-tax operating income in the company’s Food Ingredients segment totaled $4.5 million in fiscal 2013, down from $5.2 million a year ago. The decline reflected higher raw material cost for flour that outpaced pricing increases. Flour costs averaged 14.7% higher per lb over the prior year.

Food Ingredients sales for the year were $58.9 million, up 4.4% from a year ago. The company said higher sales of specialty starches along with tight market conditions created a temporary selling opportunity for sales of commodity protein.

For the year, $27.8 million in sales came from specialty wheat starches, $20.1 million came from specialty wheat proteins, $8.5 million came from commodity wheat starch and $2.6 million came from vital wheat gluten.