Produce exporter T&G Global's full year profit is down 20 percent as the business faced significant challenges over the past year, with supply chain disruptions, missed sales opportunities, bad weather and labour shortages.
Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
KEY NUMBERS (for the 12 months ended 31 December 2021 vs year earlier)
- Net profit $8.9m vs $ 11.1m Down 20 percent
- Revenue $1.37b vs $1.41b Down 3 percent
- Underlying profit $16.9m vs $32.4m Down 48 percent
T&G Global chief executive Gareth Edgecombe said the ongoing implications of Covid-19 continued to challenge the company however the underlying fundamentals of the business were strong.
"The impacts of hail on our Nelson-grown fruit and challenges with border closures and labour shortages due to Covid-19, reduced both the sizing and volumes of our apples," Edgecombe said.
"Further, global supply chain disruptions, including fewer ships visiting Aotearoa New Zealand and container shortages, affected our ability to import tropical produce into Aotearoa New Zealand and export apples to customers around the world."
He said the ability to get goods to market were constrained despite its best efforts to address supply chain disruptions, with missed sales opportunities as some produce arrived too late.
Edgecombe said a combination of factors affected its profits.
"This was largely due to the impact of the hail, labour shortages, increased shipping costs and shipping delays, as well as the influence Covid-19 had on market and customer access - both in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world," he said, adding the losses were somewhat offset by increased Envy apple licensing revenue.
"With global consumer demand for our premium Envy apple brand projected to increase five-fold by 2030, we've continued to build the platform to support this growth."
This included strengthening key global markets, planting more Envy and investment in automation.
"We've also started construction on a new $100m, leading-edge, automated packhouse in the Hawke's Bay, which will improve productivity and accommodate increasing volumes of Envy and other apple varieties," Edgecombe said.
"Furthermore, the launch of VentureFruit, our global genetics and variety management business, was a real success and future plans will see us bring new and superior fruit to consumers, retailers and growers around the world."
Edgecombe said the many of the challenges facing the company last year were still in play.
"We'll continue to navigate and manage any challenges that come our way, including Covid-19, continuing supply chain constraints, rising costs in freight and utilities, and workforce shortages."