The disinvestment of Podravka’s beverage business continued to weigh on the Croatian food producer’s financial results in the first half of the year.
Net income, sales and operating profit all witnessed a decline, with the company attributing the poor performance to the restructuring process associated with the disinvestment of beverages and its redundancy programme that covered 110 employees. In total, 180 people left the Podravka Group with termination packages in the six months through June, according to its earnings statement.
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The company, whose range stretches from bakery to snacks and sweets, posted a 75% slide in H1 net income to HRK24.8m (US$3.9m) from a year earlier. Profit had also slumped 70% in the first quarter.
Podravka considers the negative effects to be temporary, “so they are not a realistic indicator of the company’s profitability,” the statement said.
Sales revenue for the firm, headquartered in Koprivnica, dropped 1.9% to HRK1.95bn, while operating profit slumped almost 66% to HRK44.8m. EBITDA was down 37% to HRK140.
It also looked gloomy on the investor front, with earnings per share falling to 15.9 from 26.3 in the first six months of 2016.
In the food sector, the company saw sales revenue fall 4% to HRK1.5bn, including a 5.7% decline in its own brands. As a result of increased sales of trade goods of the company Lagris and private labels of Zito, ‘other’ sales were 6.2% higher than a year earlier.
