Friesland net profit climbs

11/03/05 Dutch dairy products maker Friesland Foods' has reported what it is calling “satisfactory results in a difficult year” with net profit climbing by 25% in 2004 to 70 million euros. The result in Europe improved mainly due to cost control and lower pension charges. Outside Europe, sales volumes grew. Unfavourable foreign exchange effects, higher raw material prices on the world market, reduced export refunds and the impact of the price war between Dutch supermarkets put pressure on the result, with net turnover decreasing by 3% to 4.4 billion euros. Thanks to the healthy cash flow, net debt was further reduced by 79 million euros.

The company said that market conditions remain uncertain for 2005, with the size of the economic recovery in Western Europe still unclear. Competition between the supermarkets in Western Europe will continue to put pressure on selling prices. The Asian market will continue to grow, although the level of growth is difficult to estimate and the company would make no firm statement about expectations for 2005.