March 6, 2007

 

German's PHW group manages to scrape by a challenging 2006 

 

 

German poultry giant PHW Group says its annual turnover increased 0.5 percent to EUR 1.27 billion despite difficult conditions for 2006.

 

The increase, although slight, had to be seen in the light of the bird flu fear which saw sales nosedive and an oversupply situation in Germany that saw chicken prices plunging.

 

Still, PHW Group's Wiesenhof brand suffered less than its competitors and sales were down only 2.6 percent to EUR 766 million in its poultry division.

 

PHW Group's owner, Paul-Heinz Wesjohann, said the quality of the Wiesenhof brand protected the company from the negative effects of these challenges.

 

Lohmann Animal Health GmbH & Co. KG (LAH), which belongs to PHW's Animal Nutrition and Health division, increased sales eight percent to EUR 142.7 million with the feed additives business accounting for EUR 109.6 million, or three-quarters of the revenue.

 

Sales in the group's poultry vaccine segment rose in the reporting year by 16.8 percent to EUR 27.8 million.

 

The group's Breeding and Rearing division, which supplies the Wiesenhof brand, saw sales growth of 4.7 percent to EUR 60.6 million.

 

Meanwhile, sales at its Animal Nutrition and Health division edged up 0.3 percent to EUR 304.6 million.

 

The PHW animal nutrition company, MEGA Tierernährung GmbH & Co. KG, increased its production volume by 5.2 percent from the previous financial year, and reported a slight upturn in sales in this sector. However, on the whole, MEGA fared badly due to the downswing in the trade of raw goods, and registered a sales decline of 6.1 percent to EUR 158 million.

 

Wiesenhof practices a closed-loop production system, together with some 700 partner farms and producer associations, all in Germany.

 

Wiesenhof is the only European supplier to guarantee that the feed from its own mills contains no genetically modified soybean and is also salmonella-free.

 

The company introduced organic chicken to its range of products in 2002 and is planning to expand it to include organic chicken pieces and organic turkey pieces.

 

In that respect, ecologically produced feed would play a critical role when the company is counting upon the success of its organic poultry range, Wesjohann said.