Ignore the impact of the Australian dollar and extra costs and write-offs and food giant, Goodman Fielder turned in a not too bad result, with earnings up around 10-11%.
Include the impact of the stronger Aussie currency and those costs and losses and earnings after tax and one off items finished lower by around 8%.
Second half earnings were off around 20% because of the non-recurring items and margin compression as supermarkets forced new trading terms on suppliers.
The company told the market yesterday that it "delivered a robust result in difficult conditions for the year ended 30 June 2010 with Net Profit after Tax of $161.1 million, after non-recurring costs of $22.4 million".
"If these costs are excluded, normalised NPAT was $183.5 million –an increase of 11.2%.
"Operating Cash Flow was up by 12.1% over the previous year to a record $319.7 million.
"The ability to generate strong operating cash flows is an inherent feature of Goodman Fielder’s business model and supports reinvestment in the business and a high dividend payout ratio," the company said.
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation) on a reported basis was $385.3 million, up by 3.3% despite being impacted by non-recurring costs.
Goodman said ignoring these non-recurring costs EBITDA increased by 10.3% to $399.6 million.
The ongoing strength of the Australian dollar adversely affected returns from both our Asia Pacific and New Zealand businesses which were impacted by weak currency when profits were translated into Australian dollars.
The cost from the stronger dollar was $15.1 million off EBITDA, according to Goodman.
Revenue for the year was down by 6.6% to $2,660.1 million, "reflecting input cost volatility in the first half and adverse currency translation".
The company declared a final dividend of 5.5c a share, making a total for the year of 10.75c a share, up marginally from the 10c paid in the 2009 financial year.
Goodman Fielder said its "operating environment continues to be quite fluid with key sensitivities driven by input cost volatility, currency translation and food price inflation.
"Full year net profit for FY 2011 is projected to achieve mid to high single digit percentage growth over the FY 2010 normalised result."
Goodman Fielder said its result was "robust… in difficult conditions".
"Overall, the company experienced a highly competitive business environment throughout the year coupled with low pricing inflation," Goodman Fielder said.
"Consumers tended to pursue value offerings and this contributed to a very competitive market characterised by aggressive discounting.
"Despite these market trends, the company returned further steady improvements in the fresh businesses of Baking and Dairy with EBITDA up substantially."
Goodman Fielder shares rose 2c to $1.27 yesterday in a market that was all but square on the day.
Paperlinx, the Melbourne-based paper distributor and stationer had another sad and sorry year; another loss, so the axe is out to lower costs and bring the return of profits a little closer.
But don’t hold your breath as the company says that time is still distant as it awaits a turnaround in the paper market here and around the world.
PaperlinX yesterday reported a loss of $225.3 million in the year to June 30.
Still nasty, but it was a substantial improvement on 2009, in fact the loss was 72% lower than the red ink stained result the year before of $798.2 million.
"Group revenue for the year of $5.2 billion, was down 26.5% on the prior year, with volume of 2.9 million tonnes down 20% (merchant volume of 2.8 million tonnes was down 7% overall), reflecting the exit from manufacturing and weak markets globally," the company said in yesterday’s statement.
Naturally, after another poor result, there was no payout for the year to shareholders, a repeat of the 2009 experience.
With 18 months or so of enormous (and wrenching) structural change behind it, PaperlinX said it now will focus on its underlying business.
While markets had found a floor and stabilised, the company said it saw the "overall position continuing without any accelerated improvements in the near term, and have begun the year at expected volume and profitability levels to-date.
"We are taking prudent steps to further streamline our organisation and further reduce overheads and working capital.
"Now, with the distractions of the refinancing, exit from historical lenders, and the closure of Tasmanian operations and various restructurings behind us, we are able to focus fully on our underlying business.
"Diversified business growth in areas including sign and display, graphics, digital, industrial packaging and converting will improve with overall economic improvement.
"Upside leverage also exists against our new cost and working capital base in our core paper merchanting activities if markets and volumes improve."
PaperlinX said in a statement that
