For the January-September 2024 period, Finland-based food company Atria Plc is reporting substantial improvements in its financial performance.
Already after three quarters, profitability — expressed as adjusted Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) — already surpasses this metric for the whole of the last financial year.
This is among the business developments of the July-September period performance highlighted by CEO Kai Gyllström.
Overall, the group’s net sales were up 2.2% year-on-year at EUR439.0 million (US$472.9 million). Sales by Atria Sweden were EUR14.5 million ahead of the comparable period in 2023. However, at EUR308.8 million, net sales by Atria Finland were down by EUR4.8 million, which was attributed to lower feed sales prices.
Driven by improvements by both the Finnish and Swedish businesses, Atria Plc’s consolidated adjusted EBIT for the latest quarter was up 33.7% year-on-year at EUR25.8 million.
Atria’s operations in Denmark and Estonia are reported jointly. Compared with the third-quarter of 2023, net sales were up slightly at EUR32.4 million, but EBIT slipped to EUR1.2 million.
During this latest quarter, Atria reports that its new poultry plant in Nurmo (Finland) has been fully commissioned.
In a separate development during the period, Nurmon Bioenergia announced plans to build production capacity for renewable biofuel near Atria’s facility at Nurmo Atria reports that a carbon-neutral food chain is one of its key sustainability targets, and Nurmon Bioenergia is jointly owned by Atria Plc and Finnish biogas company Suomen Lantakaasu.
Profit up despite sales dip for year-to-date
For the January-September period, consolidated net sales by Atria Plc amounted to just over EUR1.31 billion. This represents a dip of 0.3% year-on-year, driven by lower feed sales prices and sales to the food service sector in Finland, according to the company.
Net sales for Atria Finland for the year to date were EUR964.8 million — down from EUR992.4 million for the same period of 2023. In contrast, net sales by Atria Sweden and Atria Denmark & Estonia were reported at EUR270.9 million and EUR95.2 million, respectively. These represent increases of EUR20.9 million, and EUR3.6 million, for the two operations, respectively, compared with the same period of 2023.
At EUR52.1 million, consolidated adjusted EBIT for Atria Plc as a whole was a significant improvement on the EUR40.2 million reported for January-September of 2023. As a percentage of net sales so far in 2024, this amounts to 4.0% — up from 3.1% last year.
Atria notes that additional costs for the commissioning of the Nurmo plant and the closure of its plant in Malmo constrained the EBIT figure reported in the comparative period in 2023.
In May, Atria finalized its acquisition of the entire share capital of Swedish convenience food manufacturer Gooh!
More on Atria Plc
With annual slaughtering of 45 million chickens, Atria is among the largest poultry companies in Europe, according to the WATTPoultry.com’s Top Poultry Companies survey for 2023.
Based in Finland, the company is among the country’s leading meat producers, with operations in both the poultry and pork sectors. It also has businesses in Sweden, Denmark, and Estonia.
Results for the last full financial year reveal that the group’s net sales were up by EUR56 million year-on-year at over EUR1.75 billion. However, profitability — expressed as adjusted EBIT — increased only slightly to EUR49.6 million.
Making use of solar energy and recycling byproducts were among the ways Atria Plc reduced its carbon footprint last year, according to the firm’s most recent sustainability report.