MELVILLE, N.Y. — Increased sales and contributions from acquisitions helped lead to a 40% increase in income at The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. during the first quarter.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the company had income of $16,386,000, equal to 36c per share on the common stock, which compared with income of $11,690,000, or 27c per share, during the same quarter of the previous year. Sales for the quarter were $359,807,000, up 25% from $286,837,000.

“We had a strong start to our fiscal year with solid growth of our business led by Hain Celestial United States and with contributions from our expanded international operations during our first quarter,” said Irwin D. Simon, founder, president and chief executive officer. “Our increased scale provided us the leverage for improved operating efficiencies across our global portfolio enabling us to deliver solid results from all of our segments. At the same time, our cash conversion cycle improved to 66 days compared 83 days during the first quarter last year.”

The company also announced it has entered an agreement to acquire BluePrint, a leader in juice cleanses and single-serve raw juices based in New York City. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the calendar year 2012 and be accretive to the company’s earnings in fiscal year 2013. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

In addition, the company said it has closed on the acquisition of grocery brands from Premier Foods P.L.C., a U.K.-based company. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to the company’s earnings starting with the second quarter of fiscal 2013 and net sales during the eight months from closing to June 30, 2013, are expected to be about $180 million. The acquisition will be a part of the Hain Daniels Group.

“This acquisition furthers our goal to expand in the United Kingdom and positions the newly expanded Hain Daniels business in the top 40 of all food and beverage suppliers in the U.K.,” Mr. Simon said. “We expect to leverage the loyal customer base from Hartley’s, Sun-Pat, Gale’s, Robertson’s, Frank Cooper’s and Rose’s with our existing global brands, including Rice Dream, Celestial Seasonings, Earth’s Best, Terra Chips and Sensible Portions in the United Kingdom marketplace.”