Ahead of the firm’s annual general meeting, Helen Nash, the new chair of Ingham’s Group Limited described the past fiscal year as “challenging.”
In a recent letter to the company’s shareholders, she highlighted disruptions to operations arising from the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Furthermore, she referred to increased input costs, particularly for feed and fuel.
At AUD2.7 billion (US$1.7 billion), the firm’s total revenue has increased 1.7% year-on-year.
However, increased costs have hit profitability. Compared to the previous year, Underlying Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) was around 35% lower in the 2022 fiscal year at AUD135 million. At AUD42.4 million, underlying net profit slumped 44% from the previous year.
Corresponding statutory figures are reported at AUD370 million for EBITDA — down 16.6% — and AUD35.1 million for net profit, a decline of almost 58%.
More on Ingham’s Group
With annual slaughterings of around 223 million, Ingham’s is the largest poultry company in Oceania, according toWATTPoultry.com’s Top Poultry Companies survey.
According to the group’s latest annual report, Ingham’s supplies chicken, turkey, and plant-based protein products to retail, fast-food restaurants, food-service distributors, wholesale, and export channels. As well as poultry meat, the group is among Australia’s largest feed producers.
A fully integrated group, Ingham’s operates hatcheries, poultry farms, primary and secondary processing facilities, and feed mills in most states of Australia, and also in New Zealand.
For the last fiscal year, Ingham’s generated almost AUD2.17 billion from poultry and AUD145 million in Australia. For its New Zealand division, poultry revenue amounted to AUD314 million, and feed AUD57.3 million. Adjusted operating expenses were reported at AUD2.33 billion for Australia, and AUD388 million for New Zealand.
As for the group as a whole, the revenue figures for both divisions and activities were well above the 2021 levels, but higher operating costs ate into the corresponding EBITDA.
Two months ago, Ingham’s Group reported a successful conclusion to its 2022 fiscal year. Despite numerous market challenges, the firm’s core poultry sales volume grew 4.2%.
Earlier this year, the company announced a number of new executive appointments.
In August, Ingham’s Group announced that its chair, Peter Bush was retiring from the board. He had chaired the company since its public listing in 2016. Already in February this year, serving non-executive director Helen Nash was announced as the new chair. The transition was originally planned to take place later this year, but was brought forward for health reasons.
