A focus on cost control is set to drive improved annual profits at Ter Beke, the Dutch food group, the company’s CFO has told just-food.
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The ready meal-to-deli maker has looked to cut costs in the last 12 months with revenues remaining flat.
On Friday (6 November), Ter Beke forecast that its annual earnings would match last year’s level, when profits where artificially boosted by one-off items.
Revenues in the first nine months of 2009 have matched those reported in 2008 and Ter Beke, which has sites in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, has turned to its business infrastructure to generate savings.
CFO René Stevens told just-food Ter Beke was looking to streamline its production and slicing base in the Netherlands.
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By GlobalData“We will have two facilities – one in Nijmegen and one in Rotterdam – by October next year,” he said.
Nonetheless, Stevens was upbeat about Ter Beke’s financial performance in 2009, although he remained sanguine about the outlook for the economy.
“The major leap forward for this year is that profits will be the same last year. Last year, we had a EUR1.5m (US$2.2m) exceptional item; this year, we will achieve the same result but based on recurring profit,” Stevens said.
“We were less affected by the crisis because we are in the food sector so we will be less favoured by the end of the crisis,” he suggested.
