Revenues fall at former Donegal Creameries

Donegal Investment Group has announced a drop in revenue and profitability for 2014 due to a poor performance from its produce seed potato division.

The Dublin-listed group, which rebranded from Donegal Creameries in 2013, operates across agri-inputs, produce, property and other investments. It has operations in Ireland, the UK, Holland and Brazil.

The group announced a 6.9 per cent decline in revenue to €80.7 million on Thursday and said 2014 presented “significant challenges for its produce seed potato business, but was one of significant progress and development in speciality dairy.”

The company said adjusted operating profit was down €2.1 million from €2.9 million in 2013 to €900,000 last year. Profit after tax fell by €2.1 million to €2.7 million.

Net debt increased by €900,000, primarily due to the exceptional costs incurred during the year.

"During 2014 the group experienced extremely difficult trading conditions in its produce seed potato business resulting in a segmental loss of €0.8million in comparison with a segmental profit of €1.8 million in 2013, which has materially impacted overall 2014 financial performance. The significant surplus of seed as a result of strong European harvest yields and a weak ware potato market resulted in downward pressure on tonnage prices in the last quarter of 2014," said chairman Geoffrey Vance.

He said the group’s animal feeds business, Smyths, experienced reductions in both price and volume during the year as trading reverted to more normalised levels following a very strong performance in 2013. Mr Vance also said progress in the development and scaling of the group’s speciality dairy business was made during the year with increased listings for existing Nomadic products in the UK market and further new product development.

Donegal has recommended a final dividend of nine cent per share. This will bring the total dividend per share to 16 cent, the same level as in 2013.