Mondelez revenue slump due to closure

A year on and Cadbury's revenue is down more than $80million; pictured, the former manufacturing site in Dunedin. Photo: Gerard O'Brien
A year on and Cadbury's revenue is down more than $80million; pictured, the former manufacturing site in Dunedin. Photo: Gerard O'Brien
Cadbury's withdrawal from Dunedin last year has hit its bottom line, with revenue slumping more than $80 million and before-tax profit more than halved to $31.1 million.

Mondelez-owned Cadbury pulled out of its profitable Dunedin plant last year, with the loss of more than 350 jobs, and also closed tourism attraction Cadbury World, when the site was sold for the new Dunedin hospital site.

Revenue for calendar 2018 was down 28.5%, from $296.6 million the year before to $211.8 million, before-tax profit dropped 52.9%, from $66.1 million to $31.1 million and the after-tax loss improved from $9.92 million in 2017 to $6.28 million, for 2018.

Notes from the annual report of Mondelez New Zealand Investments make no mention of what caused the $84.8 million revenue decline.

Mondelez New Zealand managing director Cara Liebrock was not available for an interview.

Mondelez external affairs manager Jake Hatton said ''the vast majority of the revenue change is due to the factory closure, not sales revenue''.

With the factory closure, the factory revenue is no longer counted in the New Zealand annual accounts, he said.

''There were a range of factors that impacted revenue last year, including a number of one-time adjustments which included the factory closure, changes to customer inventory management, and the closure of the popular Cadbury World attraction, which was unfortunately out of our control,'' he said.

The New Zealand business continued to ''perform strongly''' and Mondelez was committed to investing in the New Zealand business and working closely ''with thousands of local retail partners'' to support growth.

The report noted property, plant and equipment sold to other Mondelez subsidiaries during the year for a total $7.35 million, against no plant sales the previous year.

The ''restructuring provision'' for 2018 was $12.58 million, while in 2017 the post-employment benefits, including severance payments, was $18.34 million.

It appears post-employment benefits, including severance payments, totalled $19.51 million with $1.18 million booked in 2017.

Employee remuneration in New Zealand fell from $35.8 million in 2017 to $13.6 million in 2018.

simon.hartley@odt.co.nz

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