March 1, 2007

Meat sales up for Finland's HK Ruokatalo
 

Finnish meat processor H K Ruokatalo saw group sales in 2006 reach Euro 934.3 million, an improvement of Euro 51.0 million on the previous year.

The company's operating profit was Euro 40.4 million compared to Euro 24.1million in 2005.

The company said in a statement that Finnish operations of HK Ruokatalo Group are characterised by intense structural development with the objective of enhanced cost competitiveness.

However, the company still fell short of its longer-term targets despite an increase in revenue and profitability.

Growth objectives in revenue and profitability were reached in Baltic operations but revenue growth and profitability improvement were halted by tightened competition.

The acquisition of the meat firm Swedish Meats in the latter half of the year makes HK Ruokatalo Group a substantially larger player in the industry than before.