Sweden
October 2, 2020
Lantmännen’s result for the first eight months of 2020, after net financial items and adjusted for items affecting comparability, amounts to 1 320 MSEK – a significant improvement compared to last year’s result of 1 090 MSEK for the same period.
”The result for the first eight months is Lantmännen’s highest ever. It is pleasing to be able to deliver such a strong result despite the ongoing corona pandemic and weaker world economy. All our sectors and business areas have quickly and thoroughly implemented necessary measures to deal with the effects of the corona outbreak. In addition, our broad business portfolio is a strength in troubled times,” says Per Olof Nyman, Lantmännen’s CEO and Group President.
The figures below refer to operating profit adjusted for items affecting comparability. Last year’s result in parentheses.
The Agriculture Sector shows a significantly higher result than the previous year: 339 MSEK (104). The higher result is driven by the Swedish operations – the result for the first half of 2019 was, however, severely impacted by the consequences of the 2018 drought. This year’s Swedish harvest has been very intensive, with large grain volumes being delivered to Lantmännen’s facilities over a short period of time. The forecasts show a harvest volume just above the average for the last five years, and the grain quality is generally good.
The Energy Sector has more than doubled its result compared to the previous year: 380 MSEK (167). All of the Sector’s operations are developing positively and deliver higher results. The largest improvement has been made in Lantmännen Agroetanol, driven by a higher ethanol price, improved production yields, and higher produced volumes. An investment project for increasing production capacity of refined oat products has been initialized at Lantmännen Oat’s facility in Kimstad.
The Food Sector shows a lower result than the previous year: 504 MSEK (682), which is mainly due to decreased Foodservice sales in Lantmännen Unibake due to the corona pandemic. The largest sales decline has taken occurred in markets where customers consist mainly of hotels, restaurants, fast food chains and airlines. Lantmännen Cerealia has continued to improve its result, both through increased sales of consumer products and the improvement program that has been carried out over the last year.
The Swecon Business Area’s result is slightly lower than the previous year: 262 MSEK (277). For the first months of the year, the total market for construction machinery was significantly lower than the previous year – demand has picked up again during summer, and the supply of machinery is back to normal levels. Swecon has further strengthened its market share in Sweden during the second four-month period.
The Real Estate Business Area shows a result, excluding capital gains, of 149 MSEK (148). Activity in the property market has been low during the year. The Business Area’s larger projects are proceeding as planned.
“It is still very difficult to assess what the overall social and economic consequences of the corona pandemic will be, but I feel confident that Lantmännen as a company will continue to be stable. We have a strong financial position, generate a good cash flow, and are delivering a historically high result. Overall, this means that we have good conditions to achieve a high refund and supplementary payment for our members also for the full year 2020,” says Per Olof Nyman.
For more information, please read the entire interim report, which is available at https://lantmannen.com/financialinformation.
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