Victorian-based pie and pastry group, Patties Foods had a similar 2008 to Goodman Fielder as it too battled rising commodity and logistics costs and some manufacturing inefficiencies.
But it managed to avoid the huge write-down that GFF did to report an 8.6% lift in annual net profit for the year.
And, unlike its bigger competitor, Patties hasn’t written off 2009. It sees some growth and expects to see an improvement in revenue and earnings in the current year.
"In the current economic climate of low consumer confidence, the company’s products tend to become more attractive to consumers and we have noticed this trend in the latter part of fiscal 2008 and the early part of fiscal 2009," Patties said.
"With the disruption of the significant capital expenditure at Bairnsdale substantially behind us coupled with the successful Creative Gourmet/ Chefs Pride acquisition … (Patties) expects to see improvement in revenue and earnings," the company said in its statement to the ASX.
The shares rose 2.5 cents to 92.5 cents at the close.
The company said that analysts’ expectations of earnings for FY09 were in the range of $15.8 million to $17.4 million after tax, and revenue expectations were between $179.1 million and $185.4 million for FY09; and "whilst it is too early to forecast the result for FY09, the results for the first six weeks are in accordance with the company’s budgeted expectations," the company said.
Annual profit increased to $13.85 million for the year to June 30 compared to 12.74 million the previous year after revenue jumped 29% to $163.95 million.
This was driven by good growth from both the existing retail and foodservice segments of the business as well as a positive contribution from the Creative Gourmet/ Chefs Pride (Silverwater) business acquired in May of last year.
One-off items impacted its annual profit by $1.2 million, including a write-off receivable from a US distributor which experienced financial difficulties and termination costs relating to the restructuring of the company’s management.
"Whilst earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) increased for the Company over the prior year, margins continued to be impacted by issues in manufacturing caused largely by an increased number of products (SKUs) being produced and therefore a higher level of line changeovers in the Bairnsdale facility," the company said.
"This was exacerbated by the disruption caused during the commissioning of two new production lines. The Company has undertaken actions to address these issues in the second half of FY2008 and expects to see further improvement in FY2009 EBIT margins as a result.
"FY2008 was also the first year of operation of the Company’s joint venture associate, Davies Bakery (Aust) Pty Ltd. Building of the facility was completed in October 2007 and commissioning of the facility continued throughout FY2008.
"Accordingly, this entity has posted a start-up loss for the financial year which is not considered to be reflective of its ongoing operating capacity.
"The Company continues to monitor increasing raw material input prices and its ability to recover these increases.
"Movements in meat prices in particular are expected to present some challenges. The Company has a number of strategies to manage this risk. Supplies for a large portion of other major input costs are contracted for at least the first half of FY2009.
"The effective tax rate for the year was 25.2% due to deductions for R&D tax concessions and the effect of prior year tax provision adjustments.
"Interest costs are expected to be greater in FY2009 due to increased rates, additional borrowings for the capital expenditure program in FY2008 as well as the expiry of fixed rate borrowing of $23.5m which converted to floating rate debt in July 2008."
The company will pay a final dividend of 4.5 cents a share for the year ended June 30, taking the total for the year to 7.3 cents up from 7.2 cents in the previous year.
Realestate.com.au
Ltd, the online property advertising company controlled by News Ltd, lifted its annual profit 48.3% in the 2008 year and says it continues to look for opportunities to enter new markets.
Net profit for the year ended June 30 was $22.34 million, up from $15.06 million in the previous 12 months.
Revenue rose 45% to $155.6 million, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were $36.6 million, up 56 per cent. That was in line with guidance issued earlier this month.
The company did not declare a final dividend.
"These results demonstrate our success at building a business that provides information to real estate consumers and vital business leads to agents, especially in Australia," acting chief executive Georg Chmiel said in a statement to the ASX
"In the coming year we will maintain our focus on the fundamentals – signing up new agent customers and driving leads from our user base to them.
"We aim to sustain our growth in Australia and abroad, and we will keep looking for attractive opportunities to enter new markets."
During 20007-08, Realestate.com.au spent $23.4 million on acquisitions in the UK, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and other countries.
The company said its monthly readership figures, as measured in unique browsers, on its web portals rose 15% to 8.2 million in the year, while the total number of subscribing real estate agents increased by 32% to 22,478.
"This increase of 5,467 agents is larger than the entire customer base just f
