Quantum Foods earnings leap on lower input costs
Quantum Foods on Thursday reported a big jump in its full-year earnings, benefiting from lower commodity prices. Headline earnings rose 71% to R112m in the year-to-September, as maize and soybean meal prices dropped due to a bumper harvest, and the rand strengthened.
jackmac34 via pixabay
SA has harvested record 16.7 million tonnes of maize in the 2017-18 marketing year, a development that is likely to keep grain prices relatively contained in the foreseeable future.
The lower input costs far outweighed the negative effect of the avian flu, which affected two of the group's Western Cape commercial layer farms, resulting in the culling of birds there.
Group revenue was up 4% to R4.6bn and the final dividend leapt 467% to 34c per share, from the year-earlier period.
Investors welcomed the results, pushing the share price up as much as 11% to R3.48 in late trade on the JSE.
In its outlook statement, the company warned that egg prices could remain higher in the next six to 12 months if the avian flu remained a problem.
Source: BDpro