Wimm-Bill-Dann reports strong 2004 results

22/03/05 Russian based dairy company, Wimm-Bill-Dann’s sales rose 26.7% in 2004 to US$1,189.3 million compared to US$938.5 million in 2003. Gross profit increased 19.8% compared to last year, while gross margins decreased to 27.5% in 2004 from 29.1% in 2003. Net income increased 8.5% to US$23.0 million in 2004 from US$21.2 million last year. Adjusted EBITDA* increased 21.3% year-on-year to US$96.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA* margin stood at 8.1%.

On the operation level, dairy sales grew 34% year-on-year, with cheese sales more than doubling compared to 2003. At the same time yogurts, dairy deserts and juice containing dairy drinks grew 36% year-on-year, a slower pace than the company had initially anticipated. CEO Sergei Plastinin said that the company believes that the consumption of these higher margin products will intensify in 2005 and beyond.

Plastinin said he was pleased with EBITDA and top line growth demonstrated in 2004, as well as with improvements in operating cash flow. He said that some additional steps that we carried out in the beginning of this year, including the merger of Juice and Water businesses, will allow the company to benefit further from economies of scale and more streamlined operations at every level — from production to marketing to distribution. The strategic and ever growing role of the baby food market prompted us to organize Baby Food into a separate business unit.