Pioneer Foods earnings up 12% to 456c

Pioneer Foods recorded growth in earnings of 12% for the year. © puckillustrations - Fotolia.com

Revenue from continuing operations was up 9% to R17.0bn‚ largely due to increased sales prices‚ as volumes across the group's basket increased by only 1%.

Operating profit from continuing operations‚ before items of a capital nature and adjusted for abnormal costs‚ increased by 7% to R1.27bn‚ with an operating margin of 7.5% slightly lower than the 7.6% achieved a year ago.

A final dividend per listed ordinary share of 86c was declared‚ up 23% from last year.

"Significant change is under way at Pioneer Foods to position the organisation more competitively. The organisation has shown resilience by producing a fair set of results in a constrained and highly competitive market environment‚" Pioneer Foods' chief executive Phil Roux said.

In September‚ the company announced its intention to unbundle Quantum Foods and to list it as a separate entity on the JSE next year. The listing would be subject to market conditions and regulatory requirements.

Pioneer Foods said the macroeconomic outlook remained bearish in SA and‚ as a consequence‚ food and beverage categories would remain under pressure and were likely to yield limited growth in real terms.