Despite the low availability of Icelandic cod and also reduced Argentinian shrimp prices, Iceland Seafood International (ISI) achieved sales of EUR 332.2 million (USD 365.6 million) in the first nine months of 2019, representing an increase of 43.2 percent year-on-year. Its profit for the period amounted to almost EUR 4.3 million (USD 4.7 million) – climbing from EUR 2.4 million (USD 2.6 million).
The company highlighted good recovery in its Value-Added Northern Europe division in the third quarter after a challenging first half of the year amid the uncertainty of Brexit and high raw material prices. It said the last quarter was helped by new listings within U.K. retail, mostly driven by sales to Tesco, while sales to Aldi also increased.
For the nine-month period, the Value-Added Northern Europe division achieved sales of almost EUR 69.9 million (USD 76.9 million) and profit of EUR 2.2 million (USD 2.4 million). Sales by its Value-Added Southern Europe division amounted to EUR 134.7 million (USD 148.2 million), with a profit of EUR 3.2 million (USD 3.5 million).
With increased exports, ISI’s Sales & Distribution (S&D) division achieved total sales of EUR 146.5 million (USD 161.2 million), an increase of EUR 10.5 million (USD 11.6 million) year-on-year. This performance was driven by stronger sales of sea-frozen products, which increased by 52 percent.
ISI CEO Bjarni Ármannsson described the results for the first nine months as “solid” with “good sales and profit growth despite [a] challenging environment.”
“Profitability in Q3 was impacted by low availability of cod products from Iceland, this especially impacted our S-European and Sales and Distribution divisions. We saw a good recovery in the N-European division in Q3 where new listings within U.K. retail had [a] positive impact on results,” Ármannsson said. “We have made a good progress with various projects during the last few months. The focus on driving organic growth and efficiency continues, a big step in that direction was completed in July when an investment project at [Irish fresh fish company] Oceanpath was finalized. With installation of [a] salmon filleting line, we are now filleting all [the] salmon we use in-house, which improves efficiency and creates new sales opportunities.”
Meanwhile, he said the Spanish merger of Icelandic Ibérica and Iceland Seafood Spain into one company was ongoing, with the operation in Barcelona now in one physical location. It is now in the process of moving all of its cod production into this facility.
Also in Barcelona, on 13 November, ISI signed a share purchase agreement to acquire 100 percent of Elba for around EUR 4.4 million (USD 4.8 million). This frozen salted product processor has annual sales volume of around 2,200 metric tons (MT).
“Elba will be a great addition to our well positioned S-European operation, [and] will create opportunities to further leverage our strong distribution and production capabilities in Spain,” said Ármannsson.
At end of October, ISI completed a public offering of new shares and listing on the Nasdaq Main Market. In the public offering, it issued a total 225 million new shares, which resulted in a total increase in equity of EUR 15.2 million (USD 16.7 million) and took its equity ratio up to 39.5 percent.
Logo courtesy of Iceland Seafood International
