Danish Crown, which sold the UK’s biggest pork producer, Tulip, to Brazilian-owned food giant Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation for £290 million earlier this year, has posted strong results for the 2018/19 financial year.
Danish Crown has reported a 21% increase in profit from ordinary operations, up from DKK 2.1bn (£240 million) in 2017/18 to DKK 2.5bn (£290m). Revenue was up from DKK 53.6 (£6.2bn) to DKK 56.5bn (£6.5bn), a growth of 6% year-on-year.
Jais Valeur, Danish Crown’s group CEO, said: “These are solid financial results. We’re seeing a positive development in our processing companies as well as record increases in the price of pork, so while the settlement paid to our owners was critically low in the first half of the year, supplying pigs to Danish Crown has been good business in the second half.
“The past two to three months have been really good, so it’s now a question of keeping up the good work.”
Danish Crown’s president Erik Bredholt added: “We must now maintain the positive momentum and develop Danish Crown in a way which strengthens the foundations for the Danish production of slaughter pigs with the clear purpose of safeguarding our production in Denmark as well as jobs at our abattoirs.
“Our exports to Asia, especially China, which has been severely affected by African swine fever, were boosted significantly during the year. Total pork sales to China alone are up 29%, when measured in kilograms, while the total value of exports is up 63%.”
