Sanford profit up 25%

Sanford, New Zealand’s largest listed seafood company, lifted first-half profit 25% as the benefits from selling increased volumes of higher-value fresh seafood offset the impact of lower prices for frozen commodity products and disruption caused by adverse weather.

Profit rose to $19million, or 20.4c a share, in the six months ended March 31, from $15.3million, or 16.3c, a year earlier, the Auckland-based company said in a statement.

Revenue from continuing operations advanced 5% to $230.4million.

In the latest period it benefited from increased pricing of higher-value, non-commodity products such as toothfish, scampi and salmon and a production shift towards higher-value items such as fillets.

Sanford is turning its focus to extracting more value from the seafood it harvests through its inshore and deep-water fishing boats, and salmon and mussel aquaculture units.

It is investing in new fishing boats, developing higher-value brands for its products and selling more fresh produce to top local restaurants.

"This work is progressing well but is not a rapid transformation, and a large share of our volume will continue to be processed into frozen product and remains susceptible to fluctuations in global commodity prices for the time being," chairman Paul Norling and chief executive Volker Kuntzsch said in its interim report.

The company will pay a dividend of 9c a share  on June 16, which is unchanged from the year earlier.

In the past 12 months, Sanford has developed new packaging for its mainstream Sanford Blue brand and is about to roll out its premium grade brand Sanford Black and  trialling the Tiaki brand with its partners.In the first half, storms and heavy rains interrupted mussel-harvesting operations. Strong winds meant smaller fishing vessels had to seek shelter and along with cooler water temperatures, resulted in highly migratory species such as skipjack tuna and jack mackerel being harder to catch.

- Tina Morrison

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