Dairy company Arla Foods UK plc today (Friday) reported that results for the six months to 31 March 2005, were in line with its expectations and business plan.
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Turnover fell to £699.9m (US$1.276bn) from £700.0m in the same period last year, although sales from continuing operations grew to £685.2m from £676.1m last year.
Pre-tax profit rose to £10.1m from £5.0m in 2004, but the underlying pre-tax profit (before discontinued operations, goodwill amortisation and exceptional items) was down at £22.3m, compared with £23.1m a year ago. Arla called the fall in underlying profit, “modest”.
“Milk volumes reflected the timing of major customers’ changes to their supply arrangements, with our major increase in business with Asda Wal-Mart taking effect from November 2004,” it said. “This was largely offset by reductions in business with Tesco, effective from April 2004, and with Sainsbury’s from January 2005. Overall we maintained our volume share of the supermarket sector.”
“Our brands continue to perform strongly, led by Lurpak, while the commissioning of additional capacity this summer will enable Cravendale to fulfil its undoubted growth potential,” said chairman Sir David Naish. “With all the major supermarket groups now having made their supply decisions we anticipate a period of stability in the sector. We expect to make satisfactory progress in the second half as we derive growing benefits from both merger synergies and our investment programme.”
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