Synlait half-year profits fall 83%
Lower sales volumes cited as the cause
27 March 2023
1 minute read
By: New Zealand's Synlait Milk said on Monday its half-year profit fell 83% from a year earlier, hurt by lower sales volumes of milk products, reported Reuters.
The company posted a net profit after tax of NZ$4.8 million ($2.97 million) compared with NZ$23.1 million last year.
Shipment delays in powder-based milk products led sales volumes to drop by 48% to 34,794 MT for first-half of 2023, the company said in a statement.
"While underlying momentum is increasing, our full financial recovery will take longer than expected. A two-year recovery has become three years," said Grant Watson, chief executive officer of Synlait, in a statement.
The dairy milk producer maintained its fiscal 2023 guidance for net operating profit after tax, which it announced earlier in the month, in the range of NZ$15 million to NZ$25 million citing a fall in demand and production at Advanced Nutrition, one of its core business units.
Synlait had planned to exit fiscal 2023 with profitability similar to fiscal 2021, but cost and supply chain pressures amid a tight labour market and rising inflation have delayed that recovery.
($1 = 1.6142 New Zealand dollars)
