SG&A increased to $8.1 million or 17.6% from $46 million for the 3 months ended March 31, 2018, to $54.1 million for the 3 months ended March 31, 2019. This increase was primarily due to startup costs associated with the development of the cannabinoid manufacturing facilities in the provinces of Prince Edward Island and Ontario and marketing expense for the FIGR cannabinoid brand. SG&A as a percent of sales increased from 7.1% for the 3 months ended March 31, 2018, to 9.2% for the 3 months ended March 31, 2019.
Restructuring and asset impairment charges of $1.6 million for the 3 months ended March 31, 2019 were primarily related to cost savings and restructuring initiative to consolidate the company's U.S. green tobacco processing operations in Farmville, North Carolina, into the Wilson North Carolina facility and repurpose the Farmville facility for storage and special projects.
For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, full-service volumes increased 4.9% to 400.5 million kilos, despite the impact of Hurricane Florence and foreign tariffs on U.S. tobacco. Sales and other operating revenues decreased to $44.4 million or 2.4% from $1.846 billion to the year ended March 31, 2018, to $1,801.6 million for the year ended March 31, 2019. This decrease was primarily due to decrease in the volumes attributable to Hurricane Florence reducing U.S. crop size and foreign tariffs on U.S. tobacco. These decreases were partially offset by an increase in leaf volume mainly attributable to larger crops in Africa. The timing of leaf shipments in South America, a decrease in average sales price of 7.3% and the continued development of the other products and services segment.
Cost of goods sold decreased to $49 million or 3.1% from $1.599 billion for the year ended March 31, 2018, to 1,550.8 million for the year ended March 31, 2019. This decrease was primarily due to the decrease in leaf volume.
Gross profit as a percentage of sales increased from 13.3% for the year ended March 31, 2018, to 13.9% for the year ended March 31, 2019. This increase was primarily due to favorable changes in product mix, lower leaf conversion cost in Africa from higher factory throughput, driven by higher volumes, and the favorable exchange impact on local currency costs, primarily in South America and Europe and the continued development of the other products and services segment. This increase was partially offset by higher leaf conversion costs in North America, attributable to Hurricane Florence reducing the U.S. crop size.
SG&A increased $24.5 million or 16.5% from $148.3 million for the year ended March 31, 2018 to $172.8 million for the year ended March 31, 2019. This increase was primarily due to startup cost associated with the development of the cannabinoid manufacturing facilities in the provinces of Prince Edward Island and Ontario in Canada. Marketing expense for the FIGR, cannabinoid brand and the Humble Juice e-liquids brands and the acquisition of an additional cannabis cultivation license from Health Canada. These increases were partially offset by leaf cost savings and restructuring initiatives. SG&A as a percentage of sales increased from 8% for the year ended March 31, 2018 to 9.6% for the year ended March 31, 2019.
Restructuring and asset impairment charges of $4.9 million for the year ended March 31, 2019, were due to the closing of one foreign processing facility in order to process tobacco in the affected area under a third party processing arrangement going forward and the consolidation of the company's U.S. green tobacco processing operations into its Wilson North Carolina facility and the repurposing of its Farmville, North Carolina facility for storage and special projects.
Income tax expense increased $96.6 million or $164.3 million from a decline of $58.8 million for the year ended March 31, 2018. The $37.8 million for the year ended March 31, 2019. This increase was primarily due to a onetime benefit related to the enactment of the U.S. corporate income tax law in December 2017, recorded in tax expense for the year ended March 31, 2018.
As we move into fiscal year 2020, we remain committed to the pursuit of value enhancing opportunities and driving efficiencies across our operations. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Pieter for some additional remarks.
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J. Pieter Sikkel, Pyxus International, Inc. - Chairman, President & CEO [5]
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Thank you, Joel. Fiscal 2019 brought about great change for Pyxus. While our evolution is ongoing, we are confident that fiscal 2020 will continue to deliver greater growth and allow us to further capitalize on the momentum we generated in our pursuit of new innovative opportunities to support our vision for the future. And we're excited about what the next year will bring. On that note, operator, please open the line for questions.
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Questions and Answers
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Operator [1]
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(Operator Instructions) We'll take our first question from Karru Martinson with Jefferies.
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Jacqueline Elizabeth Crawford, Jefferies LLC, Fixed Income Research - Analyst [2]
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This is Jacqueline Crawford actually on for Karru. So just in terms of your fiscal 2020 guidance I think we should be run rating the gross margin improvement that you realized past quarter? Or how do you think we should be viewing margins going forward? Then I was also curious if you could breakout the guidance between your segments and maybe provide some more color on the anticipated SG&A spend for your other products and services segment? And whether we should be thinking of that as being fairly stable year-over-year? Or how we should think about that moving forward?
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Joel L. Thomas, Pyxus International, Inc. - Executive VP & CFO [3]
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Yes. So maybe to address the SG&A costs, first. SG&A cost will be increasing as we look at 2020 driven by the new businesses primarily. And so -- but we're very focused on trying to manage those costs as best as we can to the business' size as it's growing. But it's one of those items as we talked about before where you've got to continue to make the appropriate investments in people and in the marketing, branding and advertising expense to drive the growth of the new businesses. And so that will be an ongoing set of dynamics that we'll have to deal with. As it relates to margins, we see great opportunities for margins to continue to improve. And as we look at the new businesses, in particular, we anticipate the new businesses will be going to EBITDA positive during fiscal '20. So that's very exciting, as we're -- as we've already stepped into the new year.
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Jacqueline Elizabeth Crawford, Jefferies LLC, Fixed Income Research - Analyst [4]
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Okay. And then in regards to the potential monetization event that you spoke of early in the call and in your press release, how do you think about valuations for these assets? Are you looking more towards the realized reduction from these subs? Or where you projecting they can take production moving forward? And then, just given your privatization of debt paydown, can we assume that any proceeds from a monetization event would go towards most likely reducing the second lien note?
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Joel L. Thomas, Pyxus International, Inc. - Executive VP & CFO [5]
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Yes. So maybe to take the first part of that question first. Our plan is to take surplus cash from any source, including a partial monetization, to help to reduce net debt. And so there is -- I think a lot of focus on the new businesses by a variety of sources. And I think there are a number of different folks out there that have developed views on what they think value looks like based off of some of the data points that we've provided. We feel as though the value created by the new businesses is not reflected in our current stock price. And so we're spending some time right now on taking 4 of the new operating entities, 2 of which we have majority stake in, 2 of which we have minority stake in, that are now all operating together. And our goal is to have those under a holding company that then we can look at different ways that we might be able to monetize a portion of the value of that entity. And so as we're moving to EBITDA positive during this fiscal year that provides a very nice inflection point related to how a variety of different players are looking at value today and the prospects for new business.
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Operator [6]
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We'll take our next question from Mary Gilbert with Imperial Capital.
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Mary Ross Gilbert, Imperial Capital, LLC, Research Division - MD of Institutional Research Group [7]
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Just to kind of follow up on a couple of those. So with regards to the monetization, is the timing going to be this calendar year in 2020? And then also is it something that we're looking at where we would tap the Canadian equity markets in order to get, let's say, commensurate valuations? And then also with regard to the negative impact of SG&A while the business there -- businesses are getting to EBITDA positive, the $160 million to $180 million guidance, does that infer, let's say, a drag on the core tobacco leaf business such that there's still sort of a consolidated negative EBITDA that goes against the leaf business EBITDA in that $160 million to $180 million? Or does that also incorporate a positive EBITDA contribution? That part wasn't clear to me. And I have a follow-up.
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Joel L. Thomas, Pyxus International, Inc. - Executive VP & CFO [8]
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Yes. So the $160 million to $180 million is a consolidated view based on how we currently account for all of our various operating units and then the roll up to consolidation. And does have baked in the additional cost that we just talked about at the front side of the call related to SG&A. And so at the beginning of the year, until we go EBITDA positive, the new businesses are -- we do have negative EBITDA associated with them. And then as we move into the breakeven and then crossover to positive EBITDA, then they'll be providing positive EBITDA. And again that's all baked into our current guidance. And as it relates to the first part of your question, we can't speak to any specifics at this time related to how we're thinking about monetization. But right now, if we kind of think through the fiscal year that we've just started, it would be towards the beginning of the year that we will be evaluating and looking at various opportunities.
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Mary Ross Gilbert, Imperial Capital, LLC, Research Division - MD of Institutional Research Group [9]
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Okay. So then following up on that, does that infer that, originally, you were timing to do a refinancing later this year. Does that look like now that's going to timed just ahead of the 1 one year out on the 8.5? So April 15, 2020, is one year out on the 8.5 and so obviously you want to have it done before then. So is that what you're sort of thinking, is it going to be a refinancing kind of timed with potential partial monetization in the first quarter? And then just to clarify on the SG&A or the negative EBITDA impact to the guidance, is the magnitude of that impact somewhere in the $20 million to $30 million range? Is that how we should think about that?
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Joel L. Thomas, Pyxus International, Inc. - Executive VP & CFO [10]
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We've not given any specific ranges related to the new businesses, not at this time. There will likely be additional information related to the new businesses as we get further out into the year. And as we start to have the actuals flowing through for this year, so we'll come back to you on that point. As it relates to the timing of the refinancing, yes, sometime between now and April of 2020 would be when we would be looking to step into the market. So it's just a matter of the appropriate timing.
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Mary Ross Gilbert, Imperial Capital, LLC, Research Division - MD of Institutional Research Group [11]
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Okay. And then finally, you talked about financing the cannabis operation. Where does that stand? Is that going to be in the first quarter that we'll start to see debt associated with sort of the build out of that business since it didn't show up at year -- at fiscal year-end?
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Joel L. Thomas, Pyxus International, Inc. - Executive VP & CFO [12]
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Yes. And it may not show up as necessarily as debt depending on the type of products that we use. We'll try to make sure that we tailor what we use to the specific requirement. And again as we've talked about before on some of the other calls, there are certain structured finance products that we might utilize that wouldn't necessarily show up as debt.
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Operator [13]
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We'll take our next question from Bryan Hunt with Wells Fargo Securities.
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Bryan Cecil Hunt, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Analyst [14]
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Joel, I was wondering if you could touch on, what's the remaining capital? Or what's the capital plan for the Canadian cannabis business for this year?
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Joel L. Thomas, Pyxus International, Inc. - Executive VP & CFO [15]
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Yes. So we try to give a little bit of information on that in the K, Bryan. And if you go to Page 70, we've got a section on planned capital expenditures, and we've identified about $94.2 million for 2020. And of that, the other products and services segment is estimated to be around $67 million. So it's -- the typical kind of $15 million to $20 million maybe even up to $25 million related to maintenance CapEx on the leaf side. And then we've got the other businesses.
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Bryan Cecil Hunt, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Analyst [16]
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Very good. And based on the discussion you had with Mary there, it's -- for the full year, is it safe to assume that all the other businesses will be EBITDA negative for the year?
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Joel L. Thomas, Pyxus International, Inc. - Executive VP & CFO [17]
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I don't -- I think it's early to make that statement. The businesses -- if we're talking about the businesses outside of leaf, they're all growing very quickly. And there are some timing questions that are still out there. But we're looking forward to this year and getting numbers out as we move through the year. But there could be some timing elements there. I don't think that I can really speak to that yet.
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Bryan Cecil Hunt, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Analyst [18]
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When I look at leaf as a standalone business, you all have done a -- and as Pieter pointed out in his prepared remarks, one of the best years in a very long time and you've had 2 years of growth in a row. What's your outlook when you look at major markets like Brazil and Africa in terms of the availability of leaf? And do you think you can grow organically again in fiscal 2020?
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J. Pieter Sikkel, Pyxus International, Inc. - Chairman, President & CEO [19]
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I think we're certainly going to try, Brian. In terms of availability, we've got big crops across South America and Africa. This is the third large crop in a row in Brazil, coming in at 580,000 to 600,000 tons. Zimbabwe is another big crop. Malawi is another big crop. And -- but what we're seeing across those areas in particular with the larger crops, I think, between currency and quality, we're seeing some cost reductions in that and that may be part of what you're seeing in the potential guidance there in terms of the actual market prices because we're seeing some cost reductions and you can see that publicly when you're looking at auction markets there as they are going along. So we have -- as always in the leaf business, there is the strong availability of tobacco that helps us efficiently purchase product, and now it's a matter of us really executing on sales, blending those tobaccos, getting the shipments out to the customers, and hopefully having another good year. But certainly, the opportunity is there. The opportunity is there for significant amounts of business, but it's still early in the year for us to really make any direct statements as to where we expect to be in terms of volumes for the full year. There's multiple factors in that and obviously a pretty wide guidance range because we got a long way to go. But once we get through quarter 2 and announce that I think we'll be able to give some more clarity on that, including where we're in the U.S. in terms of supply for China and tariffs, et cetera.
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Bryan Cecil Hunt, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Analyst [20]
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All right. And one last question. I'll get back in the queue. When you look at, Pieter -- we've got this discussion with Joel over the years, about great opportunities for your business, continued outsourcing from the traditional tobacco companies or the cigarette companies, have we seen any announcements recently? And kind of where do you stand on your cut rag operations, which is a beneficiary of outsourcing? So that's it. Kind of the evolution of outsourcing and what opportunities do you see in the near term?
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J. Pieter Sikkel, Pyxus International, Inc. - Chairman, President & CEO [21]
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Well, I mean, I think, Bryan, if anything, we're seeing closures of smaller operations around the globe. And we see multiple countries really, and mostly vertically integrated operators eliminating small tobacco operations and there's been some recent announcements on that. But what does that really do, it takes those volumes and places them in larger markets where we have a presence and efficiencies. So that, we believe, creates opportunities for us to continue to grow our business, despite, obviously, declining trends in certain markets for combustible cigarette consumption. With value-added, we see strength in that business. In fact, we -- as piece of the business, we continue to invest in and whether that be in cutting in our facilities here in the United States and in Jordan, whether that be in software as we move out, whether that be in opportunities to provide other value-added services to blue-chip manufacturers around the globe as they're looking to create more efficiencies in their supply chain as volumes are declining. We continue to see those opportunities and that is reflected in the growth that you're seeing in the total full-service volumes that we announced today for the year and certainly are working very hard to continue to grow as we move out. It's a segment of our business that has steadily been growing over the last 5 years, and we've been very pleased with that part of the year -- part of the business.
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Operator [22]
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We'll take our next question from Hale Holden with Barclays.
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Hale Holden, Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - MD [23]
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I had a couple, just very quick ones. Joel, if you do monetize the new businesses, is there any restrictions on moving capital back from a Canadian cannabis company to a U.S. corporate under current U.S. laws?
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Joel L. Thomas, Pyxus International, Inc. - Executive VP & CFO [24]
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I think, Hale, the way I would answer that is there are a lot of, kind of, what ifs related to any opportunity. And so when we think about our plan to repay debt, I think that we should be in a good position to be able to pick harvested capital and apply it as we might need to.
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Hale Holden, Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - MD [25]
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Okay. In the 10-K, you guys mentioned the potential to apply for other licenses outside of Canada. I was wondering if that was a near-term event or if that was just aligned for future thought?
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Joel L. Thomas, Pyxus International, Inc. - Executive VP & CFO [26]
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Yes -- no, our global expansion plans continue. And there are a number of opportunities outside of Canada and U.S. that we're looking at and exploring, and at points in the future, we will be moving forward on.
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Hale Holden, Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - MD [27]
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Okay. And then, would it be possible for you guys to quantify the impact of the cyclones in Africa? And how that impacted the fiscal fourth quarter?
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J. Pieter Sikkel, Pyxus International, Inc. - Chairman, President & CEO [28]
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Yes. I mean we actually -- our teams did an extraordinary job there. We had several thousand tons of volume at risk because of that cyclone. And obviously, we're 3 weeks to go to the end of the quarter. They got almost all of it out with the vessels. We've had no damage and a very small quantity stayed behind that missed the end of the year. So it was really an excellent job done by our teams over there.
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Hale Holden, Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - MD [29]
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All right, great. And then my last question is, on the potential monetization of the new businesses, how -- I assume that some portion of that -- any proceeds would stay in business to help fund it on a go forward basis? Or are those other types of securitization facilities a possibility also? Just trying to figure how much...
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Joel L. Thomas, Pyxus International, Inc. - Executive VP & CFO [30]
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Yes. So we'll evaluate the local capital requirements to make sure that we have the right capital in