Nutritionals among few bright spots during Glanbia first half
investment in nutritional ingredients sooner than it did, as it
revealed a 13 per cent drop in half year operating profits
yesterday owing to difficult conditions in chilled dairy and
agriproducts.
In sharp contrast, the Kortus premix business acquired by the group last year as part of its strategy to focus on higher margin nutritional products is performing ahead of expectations, according to the firm.
Geraldine Kearney, spokeswoman at the group, told NutraIngredients.com that the vitamin and mineral premixes offered by Kortus are already well integrated into the Nutritionals unit, which also makes whey proteins and dairy-based minerals for sports, weight loss and fortified dairy products.
The company declined to reveal turnover from its Nutritionals business - still small enough to come under the larger Food Ingredients unit - but said that it delivered "solid organic growth" during the period, contributing to the 5 per cent increase in overall ingredients sales.
Among the products doing well is TruCal, a natural milk calcium, for which strong demand has prompted plans for a capacity expansion at the firm's Twin Falls, Idaho plant.
The company will add roughly 2,000 square feet to its processing plant that extracts calcium from milk.
Such investments are part of an overall strategy to build 'international relevance' in the Nutritionals unit, as well as cheese and certain consumer products.
Earlier this year, Glanbia (website) managing director John Moloney said that he was aiming to double the size of this business in the next two years.
"It is the impact [of Nutritionals] on margins that we're particularly interested in," he said.
The company has hired extra staff in its R&D centres to build the nutritional product pipeline and also opened a market support office for the unit in Shanghai.
Kearney added that the group is hoping to make further acquisitions to boost Nutritionals in the coming 12 months.
"We have around €80-100 million to spend," she said.
In its other businesses the Glanbia group saw a sharp fall in operating profits during the first half. Despite good growth over the six months, the consumer foods unit recorded a 21 per cent decline in operating profit, with chilled foods hit by competition from own brand milk and cost-cutting measures such as milk depot closures.
Profits at the agribusiness division also fell some 17 per cent, as the CAP reform hit farming purchasing power and pricing.
In the overall food ingredients unit, increased capacity for cheese, whey and protein isolates boosted sales by 5 per cent to reach €541 million, and operating profits in this unit were also up by 3.6 per cent.
Overall the group recorded an 18 per cent drop in net profit to €26,4 million despite the 5.2 per cent growth in sales to €926 million.
