August 29, 2018
Bega Cheese – which bought out the Peanut Company of Australia in January – recorded a normalised after-tax profit of $44 million in 2017-18, up 45 per cent.
The company revealed at its full-year results on Wednesday, and forecast growth in its milk intake over the year ahead after acquiring a new dairy processing facility at Koroit in western Victoria in July.
Bega Cheese also saw a 17 per cent rise in revenues to $1.44 billion, a 29 per cent rise in export sales to $430 million, and normalised earnings per share of 23.9 cents, up 20 per cent.
Executive chairman Barry Irvin said fiscal 2018 had been “a very significant year, and we’ve had significant achievements in terms of the growth and the profile of Bega Cheese”.
One of these, he said, had been the acquisition of the Koroit facility, which Canadian dairy company Saputo was forced to sell in order for it to buy dairy processor Murray Goulburn.
And very early in the fiscal year, Bega completed the acquisition of the Mondelez grocery business, which included the Vegemite brand and a range of other products.
The move was followed several months later by the acquisition of PCA.
Mr Irvin said PCA was now integrated into the company which would allow it to develop a fully integrated supply chain from farmer to consumer for its peanut butter and other consumer peanut products.
“I am delighted with the strategic progress of the company and very pleased with the sound underlying financial performance,” Mr Irvin said.
Bega announced a fully franked final dividend of 5.5 cents a share, payable on September 19.
The record date for entitlement to the dividend is September 5.
Shares in Bega rose 2.7 per cent (21 cents) on Wednesday to close at $7.88, its second highest closing price this year.
