NZ Snack Foods FY profit falls 50% on rising costs

Friday 20th July 2012

NZ Snack Foods, the private equity controlled owner of Griffin's, ETA and Nice and Natural food products, posted a 50 percent drop in annual profit as costs rose faster than sales and it took an impairment charge against one of its brands.

Profit fell to $8.2 million in calendar 2011, from $16.2 million a year earlier, according to the Auckland-based company's financial statements posted on the Company's Office website. Sales rose 4.5 percent to $276 million, while the cost of sales rose 7.2 percent to $123 million.

Sydney-based Pacific Equity Partners, which owns 82 percent of NZ Snack Foods, tried to sell Griffin's last October, having acquired the company from Paris-based Danone for $385 million in 2006. The business has since been taken off the market after a buyer failed to materialise, a spokeswoman for PEP said.

Neither NZ Snack Foods, nor Griffins nor PEP would comment on Snack Foods results.

Snack Foods took a $2.5 million impairment charge against its Nice and Natural brand last year, the results show. The muesli, nut and baked bar maker took the charge after a change of supplier of the Strings brand fruit rollups, having determined it would not recover anything from the distribution rights, according to the notes.

Other operating expenses rose by 18.2 percent to $82 million, including a 32 percent increase to $2.8 million in research and development costs and the Strings charge. Trade receivables that were passed their due date but not impaired almost doubled to $3.1 million.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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