Danish Crown has reported “strong financial results” for 2014/15 with a payment to its owners of DKK 300 million (£28.4m) more than last year.
“We are working hard to ensure that it pays to be a cooperative member of Danish Crown,” said the group’s president and CEO, Kjeld Johannesen (pictured above).
“At the least, we must be competitive in terms of the prices we pay for their animals. Therefore it is wonderful that we are able to deliver a return which is significantly higher than last year.”
Noting that the “difficult sales situation” on the global market has had a significantly negative impact on the value of pork, Mr Johannesen said that the group’s “solid results” were due to Danish Crown’s targeted strategic efforts to create growth on the foreign markets and the company’s focus on its processing activities.
The group’s two biggest business areas – DC Foods and DC Pork – both contributed more than DKK 1 billion (£95m) to primary earnings for the financial year, while DC Beef also achieved “marked growth” after the running-in of the new slaughterhouse in Holsted.
As a result, a supplementary payment of DKK 1.55 (15p) per kg is being paid to cattle suppliers with a supplementary payment of DKK 0.90 (9p) per kg is being paid to sow suppliers.
Danish Crown’s end-of-year revenue totalled DKK 59.6bn (£5.6 bn) against DKK 58bn (£5.5bn) last year, leaving a profit of DKK 1,821m (£172m) of which DKK 1,538m (£145m) will be disbursed to the company’s owners.