Healthy profits for Danish Crown

The Danish Crown group, a leading pork meat processor, made an interim profit of DKK 578 million (€77m) for the first half of the financial year 2001/02.

This is DKK 24m more than the profit for the same period in the preceding financial year. The turnover for the six months was just over DKK 20 billion, the same level as last year.

However, Danish Crown claimed that in reality sales have gone up because the international meat prices have not been quite so high this year, which has influenced the turnover figures.

"This result reflects a profitability level in the Pork Division which is highly satisfactory viewed in an international perspective, and the profit of the group's processing and trading activities has increased at the same time. The Beef Division has been characterised by extraordinary circumstances for a part of the six-month period but at the present time the division is none the less ahead of its profitability for last year,"​ said Kjeld Johannesen, the CEO of Danish Crown.

The interim profit includes the original Danish Crown before the merger with Steff-Houlberg. However, the interim profit has made reservations for the implementation of the merger such that the profit level reflects the aggregate level of the merged company.

A lower profit level is projected for the second half of the financial year, because the international pork prices are currently in a downward phase of the ordinary cyclical price fluctuations. A stable profit is projected for the processing sector, and in the beef sector Danish Crown sees the European market is settling down giving hope for stable developments.