Zambeef expects results to 'exceed' market
The company, which claims to be Zambia’s largest beef producer, with operations in Zambia, Nigeria and Ghana, reported adjusted profit before to be circa US$ 5 million (m) for the year ending 30 September 2018.
This is a turnaround from September 2017 when it issued a financial results warning after a fungal disease devastated its cropping division.
This improved performance, it said, was despite the approximate 12% lower than expected wheat yields the group experienced at the end of the year, as a result of Bacteria Leaf Streak.
Zambeef said its current strong performance was driven largely by the Retail and Cold Chain Food Products division, which delivered strong volume and margin growth during the year. This was the result of the continued successful rollout of the Macro Stores and the resulting increase in demand for cold chain food products and stock feed.
It said that the Stock Feed division was able to deliver strong volume growth due to the better than expected performance of the Mpongwe stock feed plant.
The group said it does not expect BLS to have a material negative effect on its consolidated results for the coming financial year.
Net debt at the yearend is expected to be in the region of c. US $59m.
The group said it expects to report audited annual results for the year ending 30 September 2018 on 21 November 2018.
Last year the company revealed that it had to force the business to begin harvesting its winter crop early as it expected yields to be below expectations. The business had warned that it could post a loss of up to $2.5m in trading results.
