The rural services company yesterday announced operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (ebitda) of $70.2million for the year to June 30, up $550,000, or 1%, on last year's result. After-tax net profit was $39.6million, up from $32.8million the previous year.
The company will pay a fully imputed dividend of 2c per share in October, bringing the total fully-imputed dividends paid for the year to 3.75c per share.
The profit increase was achieved during a much tougher market environment than the previous year, Mr Dewdney said.
He attributed the financial improvement to the strategic focus on the performance of PGW's products, and the technical capabilities of its staff.
The company was also showing the benefit of having a diverse business exposure within agriculture.
While New Zealand's dairy industry and South America had ''extremely tough years'', horticulture in New Zealand, as an example, had continued to grow strongly.
Operating ebitda for seed and grain increased 10% and retail increased 7%, while livestock decreased 1%.
The parts of the company's business most exposed to dairy had the toughest year and more cautious spending from dairy clients was the main reason for the small reduction in group revenue, he said.
Total external operating revenue was down from $1.2billion, to $1.18billion.
Water's earnings dropped year-on-year with reduced demand for irrigation projects, while a buoyant market for beef cattle helped livestock make up for the reduced market for dairy cattle.
Net cash flow from operating activities improved $6million to $35.2million, while net debt increased $7million to $127million.
Entering the 2017 financial year, market conditions remained challenging and many New Zealand dairy farmers faced their third season in succession of cash losses, Mr Dewdney said.
South America remained ''difficult to call''; while there had been a small bounce in commodity prices, the long-term effects of April flooding on farmer confidence and demand for inputs remained to be seen.
''Weather across New Zealand, Australia and Uruguay continues to be a key driver of uncertainty as it typically is in agriculture.
''We still have many improvements in our core business to realise. However, it's too early to tell how these opposing external versus internal forces are going to play out in the year ahead,'' he said.
Repeating this year's operating ebitda next year would again be a ''stretch target'' given current market conditions, but the company would ''give it our best shot''.
