French-based poultry company LDC Group attributed its increased sales in 2018 to several acquisitions made during the year.
Compared with the previous 12 months, sales by LDC Group were 7.7% higher in value during the past year at almost EUR4.124 billion (US$4.611 billion), and achieved a 6.9% increase in volume. This would put the company’s production volume at almost 990,000 metric tons for 2018-19. According to the report for the company’s results for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2019, like-for-like sales were up by 1.5% in volume, and by 3.4% in value at more than EUR3.957 billion.
Fourth quarter sales were particularly strong, with increases of 11.8% in value and 13.2% in volume compared with the respective figures from the previous year.
Performance by LDC’s domestic poultry division was given a boost by three major acquisitions during 2018: Favreau in March, the assets of Doux in May, and Couthouis-Péridy in July. These helped to push up sales in 2018-19 by 6% by tonnage and value to more than EUR2.883 billion. Like-for-like sales were higher by 1.4% and 2.7%, respectively.
Including the upstream business, poultry sales by LDC in France increased 6.9% to EUR3.154 billion in 2018-19 as a result of the integration of Doux and a full year’s contribution by Couvoir Perrot business, which was acquired in July 2017.
Compared with the previous year, LDC’s International poultry businesses achieved strong growth in 2018-19 — up by 19.1% in tonnage, and by 29% in value to EUR353.3 million. LDC integrated the business of Hungarian duck and goose producer, Tranzit, in September 2018, and the Group’s Polish business also developed well.
Like-for-like sales for this division rose by 6.6% in value and 1.4% in volume for the 2018-19 fiscal year.
Growth in sales of branded products and frozen foods helped push LDC’s Convenience Foods division sales up by 1.8% in tonnage, and by 2.2% in value in 2018-19 compared with the previous year.
According to the WATTAgNet’s Top Poultry Companies database, LDC Group is Europe’s leading poultry meat producer.
