Volac Profits Down on Volatile Trading

The business performed well with turnover increasing by 4% to £88 million and operating profit down £1 million to £5.069 million reflecting volatile trading conditions (last year £6.077 million).

Aug 6 2010 --- Trading results for leading dairy nutrition company Volac (the trading arm of parent company Woodford Holdings Ltd) have been filed at Companies House for the year ending February 2010.

The business performed well with turnover increasing by 4% to £88 million and operating profit down £1 million to £5.069 million reflecting volatile trading conditions (last year £6.077 million).

Turnover for the largest trading company, Volac International, increased by 7% to £58 million with operating profit rising by 6% to £1.805 million (last year £1.699 million).

The key factors in our performance for the year were as follows:-

• Sales into Agriculture and Lifestyle markets continued to grow strongly
• Volac established itself as the leading manufacturer of food grade lactose in the UK
• Joint ventures continued to perform strongly following last years exceptional performance
• Significant capital investments including the acquisition of a majority shareholding in Agro-Best spol. s.r.o, a Czech Republic based sales and marketing company

Since year end, Volac has acquired Parnutt Foods Ltd, a specialist piglet and pet nutrition business based in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. This acquisition enables Volac to offer a complete young animal product portfolio spanning all the main species.

The Directors of the Company are pleased with the results of the business which despite being 16 % down in profit versus previous year is performing in line with expectations. The company has ambitious growth plans and we look forward to integrating and growing our two latest acquisitions, and continuing to look for new and exciting collaborative opportunities to leverage our knowledge and contacts in nutrition and processing.