Farsons reports €8.2 million pre-tax profit, up almost 20% over last year

Farsons Group reported another set of satisfactory results for the financial year ending 31 January 2015 as a result of consistent operational improvements combined with the Group’s pursuit of growth through innovation and internationalisation.

Chairman Louis A. Farrugia told the 68th AGM of Simonds Farsons Cisk plc that the group will grow its local and international business to establish it as a regional player within the food and beverage sector.

“To achieve this, appropriate resources are being invested in constructing additional state-of-the-art productive assets, including the €27 million beer packaging facility. This investment shall become operational as planned in April 2016,” he said.

“We are not restricting our investment solely to machinery and physical assets. Much time and investment is currently also being deployed into ensuring we revitalize some existing brands, as well as innovating and launching new products suitable for both the local and international markets.”

CEO Norman Aquilina reported profit before tax of €8.2 million, exceeding last year's record performance by almost 20%. EBITDA increased by €1.7 million over the previous year to reach €15.9 million.

Aquilina said the group continued to focus on delivering value and developing brands and packaging that differentiated Farsons brands and products allowing Farsons to maintain a leadership position.

“Moreover, our export efforts are not restricted to Europe – where significant increases were registered in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia and Poland – but also to build our brands in Asian and Australian markets.”

Dr Max Ganado and Mr Roderick Chalmers were uncontested and re-elected as directors. All resolutions proposed at the Annual General Meeting were approved.

A final dividend of €2 million was approved, bringing the total declared dividend for the year to €3 million.

Farsons is now planning to hive off a number of properties from its core food and beverage business activities, these properties will  eventually form part of a separate and distinct property-focused public limited liability company planned to be set up in 2017.