Sugar company Südzucker has announced a rise in sales for the first quarter ended 31 March to €1.252bn (US$1.52bn) from €1.125bn in the same period last year.
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Net earnings fell to €70m from €76m last year.
Sales in the sugar segment rose tin €912m from €816m. Both the high level of sugar production in the 2004 campaign and the European Commission’s decision not to reduce the 2004/05 quota led to a strong increase in sugar exports, the company said. The increase in sugar prices in the wake of the EU entry of the new Eastern European member states on 1 May 2004 affected sales for only one month in the year-earlier period but for the full quarter in the current year.
Sales in the special products segment rose to €340m from €309m. This increase was the result of our growth strategy in the fruit business, which we are expanding in successive and focused steps. On year-on-year comparison the Steirerobst and Wink groups of companies are included for the first time in the first quarter figures for 2005/06. The starch, functional food and Freiberger businesses managed to maintain sales at the year-earlier level despite difficult trading conditions. The new bioethanol plant in Zeitz which was brought on stream at the end of the first quarter did not yet contribute to sales.
Group operating profit was up by 3.3 % to €126m from €122m.
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By GlobalDataThe increase in the operating result in the Sugar segment by 14.3 % to €96m is mainly due to higher exports after the strong harvest in 2004. In the first quarter this more than compensated for the burdens from the lack of a declassification of quotas in the 2004 campaign. The sugar companies in Eastern Europe, which now operated under EU conditions for the full quarter, also contributed to the improvement in earnings.
Set against the higher operating profit in the Sugar segment there was a decline of €8m to €30m in the special products segment. This was due in the main to start-up costs for the bioethanol plant in Zeitz and cost increases in the functional food business, which are also attributable to enlarged capacities that were not yet fully utilized.
