Fish feed giant Nutreco turned in a record first half in 2012, posting an EBITA of EUR 103.6 million, up 23.9 percent from the first half of 2011. It’s the first time that the company’s earning have exceeded 100 million.
The company’s revenue also grew in the first half of 2012, reaching EUR 2.35 billion, up 10.8 percent from with the first half of 2011.
“The half year saw strong volume growth in fish feed, especially for salmon, with shrimp feed further increasing in significance due to the contribution of the Shihai feed business in China acquired in October 2011,” said outgoing CEO Wout Dekker, who will be replaced by Knut Nesse, who’s currently the COO.
(Nutreco announced early this week that it appointed Viggo Halseth as the COO of its aquaculture division.)
“As in 2008 we again see that the tight balance between supply and demand in agricultural raw materials has had a serious impact on prices,” said Dekker. “The rising prices for feed raw materials are having an impact on the production costs of livestock farmers. This explains the ongoing R&D commitment of Nutreco to explore alternative and less expensive raw material options and to increase the efficiency of feed formulations.”
Added Dekker: “The results and business developments in the first half year show Nutreco is on track in implementing the strategy ‘Ambition 2016 — driving sustainable growth.’ We also successfully raised USD 250 million in long-term debt from the private placement market to further diversify our funding structure and to extend our debt maturity profile in order to support our strategic objectives.”
