Agrifirm stabilised its annual result at € 20.4 million in 2013. This is evident from the financial statements published by the Cooperative today. The sales volume of animal feeds and plant products continues to rise.
Market trends
The sales volume of animal feeds rose by 4% relative to 2012 and for the first time exceeded 7 million tonnes. This increase is primarily due to the considerable growth in volume in the cattle farming, laying hen farming, premixes & concentrates and co-products sectors.
The sales volume of fertilisers, cereals and other products in the plant sector rose by 7.5% to 1.1 million tonnes. In addition, Agrifirm Plant managed to achieve higher revenues in the crop protection products sector in a market that, due to the healthy crops in 2013, required reduced product volumes. The new cereal collection concept (‘From-the-Farm' concept) has resulted in solid customer profit in cereal regions.
In the specialties market the subsidiary Nuscience managed to further expand its sales volume and profitability. A positive development in this regard is that, in addition to the positive results in China, companies in the Ukraine, Spain and the Benelux also achieved growth. New acquisitions were completed in Serbia and Brazil.
The results of the Co-products Division were disappointing due to the difficult market conditions prevailing during the procurement of wet and dry co-products. The reorganisation of these activities in Germany also depressed the result. The co-product operations in France and Romania, as well as other in other places, ran well. The result of Agrifirm Germany was also disappointing. In spite of growth in the volume of animal feeds and in the plant sector, the financial results in this latter sector were lower than last year.
Balance sheet position shows strong improvement
Agrifirm's balance sheet position improved significantly; solvency rose from 43% to 49%. One of the underlying reasons for this is the lower balance sheet total due to the lower cost of raw materials. In addition, in 2013 a great deal of effort was devoted to managing working capital. Improved accounts receivable management, more deliberate use of stocks and new opportunities related to the cereals pool resulted in significantly lower working capital requirements. The improved balance sheet position is expected to have a favourable impact on interest charges in 2014.
Innovative and efficient
All components of the Agrifirm Group are working on further efficiency gains. For example, the growth in sales volumes was achieved with fewer people. The personnel complement shrank by about 5%. This lowers the cost price and positively impacts the competitive position.
The intensive focus on Research & Development and improvements in logistics concepts enables Agrifirm to deliver innovative products and advisory services that enable farmers and growers to achieve better results. For example, Agrifirm in 2013 introduced a variety of products and services, such as WeideKompas for the dairy farming sector, SOLIQ for the poultry farming sector and the above-referenced From-the-Farm concept was very successful in the cereals collection sector. In the fertiliser sector, there is a high market demand for customised fertilisers. These have been introduced under the Topmix label. Developments in the fruit cultivation sector in particular are very positive in this respect
Member interest is a priority
An amount of € 12.8 million, 63% of the net income, will be paid to the Agrifirm members in the form of the Members Profit and Member Discount. This cooperative approach differentiates Agrifirm from other major players in the market.
