Russian food company Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods posted a drop in full-year profit today (18 March), hurt by an increase in expenses.
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For the 12 months ended 31 December, net income dropped 27.3% to US$101.7m, down from $140.0m in the previous year.
Despite this, sales for the period increased to $2.82bn from $2.44bn, an increase of 15.8%.
Sales for fourth quarter however, slipped to $629.4m, down 7% from $680m last year. The company lost $7.9m in the quarter from a profit of $34.4m in the comparable period of the previous year.
Operating profit for 2008 increased 14.6% to $245.1m. EBITDA grew 20.1% to $361m.

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By GlobalDataSelling and distribution expenses for the year increased 25.8% to $488.1m, primarily, due to further geographic expansion and entering new markets in remote regions. Selling and distribution expenses, as a percentage of sales, grew to 17.3% in 2008 compared to 15.9% last year.
“We continue to face the significant headwinds of the current unprecedented global economic turmoil, but despite these challenges, we achieved double-digit revenue growth across all our business segments in 2008,” said Tony Maher, Wimm-Bill-Dann’s CEO.
Sales in the company’s dairy segment increased 13.1% to $2.09bn for the full year of 2008 from $1.85bn in 2007.