{"id":221106,"date":"2018-10-26T17:22:15","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T07:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=221106"},"modified":"2020-09-23T13:31:43","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T03:31:43","slug":"bega-reflects-on-big-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/10\/26\/bega-reflects-on-big-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Bega Reflects On Big Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bega Cheese executive chairman Barry Irvin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

October 26, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bega Cheese – owners of the Peanut Company of Australia – expects to have a court determination in its well-publicised peanut butter dispute with Kraft before next June.<\/p>\n

Bega Cheese chairman Barry Irvin told Bega’s annual general meeting on Tuesday the acquisition of PCA during the year had secured the company’s supply chain for Bega Peanut Butter.<\/p>\n

“Our objective is to grow Australia’s peanut production with the goal of in the future producing all our peanut butter from 100 per cent Australian nuts,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is well-documented that the peanut butter category has been subject to some significant competition this year and that Bega Cheese is in a legal dispute with Kraft Foods.<\/p>\n

“We are pleased with our current position in the marketplace and Bega Cheese continues to be confident of its position in the dispute with Kraft; we expect a court determination of legal matters in the first half of (the) 2019 calendar year.”<\/p>\n

Bega CEO Paul van Heerwaarden told the meeting he was delighted\u00a0with the successful integration of Bega Foods and PCA.<\/b><\/p>\n

“The challenges of peanut butter have been widely discussed but putting that to one side, we have seen a strong and positive consumer response to Bega-branded peanut butter and our promotion of Vegemite,” he said.<\/p>\n

Bega’s statutory profit after tax was $28.8 million.<\/p>\n

Operating cash flow dropped from $70.2 million to $58.6 million, largely linked to Bega’s acquisitions during the year.<\/p>\n

“PCA’s acquisition costs were $2.7 million,” Mr van Heerwaarden said.<\/p>\n

“An accounting treatment of the PCA acquisition saw a favourable outcome of $4.4 million on the purchase price.”<\/p>\n

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