Last year, the company reported net revenues of PLN2.15 billion (€502.2m), an increase of 21.4% compared with a year earlier, according to Gobarto’s financial report for 2018. In spite of the higher sales, the meat business posted a net loss, at PLN17.8m (€4.2m), down from a net profit of PLN31.1m (€7.3m) a year earlier.
Export sales up
The Polish market generates the majority of Gobarto’s sales and, in 2018, Polish consumers were responsible for more than PLN1.82bn (€426.5m) or 86% of the company’s total sales. However, export sales continued to increase their share in Gobarto’s revenues, as indicated by data from its financial report. In 2018, the meat business exported PLN323.9m (€75.7m) worth of products, up 23.9% compared with a year earlier.
Gobarto benefited from the rising demand for Polish pork meat. In 2018, local businesses exported 505,000 tonnes (t) of pork meat, up 4.5% year-on-year, according to data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS).
Some of the group’s main foreign markets include Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, and Lithuania. In addition, Gobarto said it sells products to China, as well as countries in North and South America, Asia, and Africa, among others.
Boosting livestock
The group pointed to the country’s decreasing pig livestock, which totalled 11m head as of December 2018, down 880,000 head from December 2017. To help reverse this negative trend, Gobarto has launched an initiative, the Gobarto 500 programme, to develop pig breeding across the country in cooperation with local farmers. The company said it was recruiting local farmers to provide their land, allowing it to develop pig breeding facilities with a capacity of up to 2,000 head each. Gobarto signs 15-year contracts with the farmers, who are also given financial support.
“We will continue to develop pig breeding activities as part of the Gobarto 500 programme which was created to rebuild the pig breeding market in [Poland],” Marcin Śliwiński, president of Gobarto’s management board, said in a letter to the company’s shareholders.
Gobarto sells pork, beef and game meat. The company claimed it was the largest player in Poland’s red meat slaughtering, cutting and distribution industry, and comprised more than 30 offshoots located in Poland, Germany and Ukraine. In total, the group’s facilities are operated by a workforce of more than 1,500 employees.