Marel Fish recorded a year-over-year increase in revenue of 20.3 percent in 2018, the Reykjavik, Iceland-based processing equipment manufacturer announced in its fourth quarter financial report on 7 February.
The group’s revenues reached EUR 159.1 million (USD 179.4 million) in 2018, despite its fourth-quarter earnings dropping 9.1 percent year-on-year to EUR 37.8 million (USD 42.6 million).
Marel Fish’s earnings represented 13 percent of Marel’s total earnings in 2018. The parent company has record revenues of EUR 331 million (USD 373.3 million) in Q4 2018, and posted EUR 1.19 billion (USD 1.35 billion) in total revenue in 2018, up 15 percent over 2017.
“Marel as a product pioneer with extensive global reach, is well-positioned to capitalize on the markets’ requirement to match the supply and demand of food,” Marel CEO Árni Oddur Thórdarson said in a press release. “We still expect the underlying annual growth of the total market to be four to six percent on average and our aim is to continue to grow faster.”
Thórdarson called Marel Fish’s performance “a substantial improvement year-on year” despite the “soft results” in the fourth quarter.
“The order book for Marel Fish has slowed down after a good first half of the year in 2018. There was good geographical and product diversity in orders received in 2018, including greenfield projects and salmon sector orders in Chile, France and Norway. Projects over the year include a whitefish projects in Namibia, a refit of a salmon factory in Chile, while the first Flexicut for cod was sold in South Europe and the first Flexicut installed in Russia,” Thórdarson said.
Marel Fish delivered earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of EUR 12.6 million (USD 14.2 million), or 7.9 percent of total company earnings, in 2018.
“Marel has shown operational improvements in the past few quarters but EBIT in 4Q18 was affected by lower order book and lack of large orders, resulting in EBIT of EUR 1.1. million [USD 1.2 million] and EBIT margin of 2.9 percent [in Q4],” the company said.
Marel is positioning its fish division to become a full-line provider for wild whitefish, farmed salmon, and farmed whitefish. The company said it is making greater investments in innovation “to close application gaps,” and is placing greater emphasis on standardization of the business. That adjustment resulted in an expected downward short-term adjustment in operational margin for Marel Fish.
“However, management is targeting medium- and long-term EBIT margin expansion for the [fish] industry segment,” Marel said in its earnings report.
The company said its commercial position “continues to benefit from its full-line offering and steady launch of innovative high-tech products for smarter processing.”
“Global reach and focus on full-line offering across the poultry, meat, and fish industries counterbalances fluctuations in operations,” it said.
In recent quarters, market conditions have been “exceptionally favorable,” but Marel is expecting more challenging economic headwinds in the near-future “in light of geopolitical uncertainty and the general slowdown in global economic growth.”
Through 2026, Marel has set a 12 percent average annual revenue growth target, and aims to achieve that through a combination of “market penetration and innovation, complemented by strategic partnerships and acquisitions.”
The company is currently listed in on Iceland’s Nasdaq marketing, but in 2019, the company is pursuing a dual listing on an international stock exchange. Marel’s leadership had previously considered listing on the London Stock Exchange, but has eliminated that option and now is choosing between Nasdaq Copenhagen and Euronext Amsterdam.
“It is important for a global leader to have a global stage to support its ambitious growth plan, and drive fair day-to-day trading and continued shareholder returns,” the company said.
Once a decision has been made, it will take at least nine months for the dual listing to begin.
