Nutreco reports strong first quarter

Animal feed company Nutreco reported an 8.4 percent increase in its first quarter revenue to EUR 853.3 million (USD 1.18 billion) for the first quarter of this year.

The higher results were mainly driven by revenue from the company’s fish feed operation, which reached EUR 414.5 million (USD 572.8 million), up 26.6 percent over the first quarter of 2013.

However, revenue for the animal nutrition segment in the first quarter was down 4.6 percent to EUR 438.8 million (USD 606.4 million) compared to the same quarter in 2013.

The company said based on the developments in the first quarter, it expects EBITDA before exceptional items for continuing operations for the first half of 2014 to be clearly higher than the EUR 80.3 million (EUR 111 million) result in the first half of 2013.

“The operating result in 1Q was clearly higher than the same quarter of 2013,” the company said. “This was mostly due to higher volumes in Norway, a better result in southern Europe and the contribution of operating companies in Ecuador and Egypt acquired in 2013.”