BRUSSELS: Greenyard, the Belgium producer of fresh, frozen and prepared fruit and vegetables, saw first-quarter sales decrease as revenue was impacted by movements in exchange rates, mainly the British pound.
The company said in a statement yesterday (29 August) that it booked sales of EUR1.1bn (US$1.3bn) in the three months through June, a 0.9% decline from a year earlier. Of the business segments, Long Fresh witnessed the biggest drop, posting a 4.9% decrease to EUR178m related to a shortage of supply as a result of last year’s “difficult” harvest, which could not offset an improvement in price movements.
Long Fresh sales were compressed 0.9% by foreign-exchange swings caused by the pound, the company said, which negatively effected overall revenue by 0.4%.
While the separate Fresh sector reported a 0.1% drop in sales to EUR906m, the Horticulture unit saw revenue rise 3.6% to EUR25m.
In June, the company bought Poland’s mushroom substrate supplier Mykogen from private-equity firm Abris Capital Partners for EUR93m and said yesterday the transaction is expected to be closed before year-end.
Greenyard booked a drop in full-year net earnings in the 12 months through March to EUR0.7m due to “one-off” costs.
To accompany the first-quarter results, Greenyard gave an update of its share buyback. The company said it repurchased 10,000 shares on 21 August and 25 August, bringing the total since the programme was initiated in March to 1,742,000 for a total of EUR29.9m and representing 3.93% of outstanding stock.
