June 2, 2006

 

Graincorp still on track to post US$22 million annual net profit

 

 

Australian company Graincorp Ltd Thursday (Jun 2) announced it is on track to post an annual net profit of up to A$30 million (US$22.54 million) this year, unchanged from a similar forecast it made in February this year.

 

Graincorp said it planned to focus on the expanding domestic market, increasing the utilisation of its infrastructure assets and continuing to grow earnings from its business units.

 

The company has beefed up their storage and handling operations through a re-categorisation of service levels and a reduction in the number of receival sites, Graincorp managing director Tom Keene said.

 

The company's new network of 250 grain service centres in the eastern states would ensure it focused capital expenditure in places where grower customers prefer to deliver their grain.

 

Graincorp also forecast grain exports to remain steady to 5.5 million tonnes.

 

Recently, Graincorp, as part of a wheat consortium, that sold 350,000 tonnes of wheat to Iraq.

 

Graincorp's Allied Mills operation is also close to completing a new manufacturing operation in Western Sydney, which Graincorp said would ensure the company could cover demand from the area.

 

Graincorp's earnings were boosted by Allied Mills, which produced earnings for the six months to Mar 31, 2006 of US$1.4 million, up from US$400,000 last year.

 

The first half profit came on the back of revenue of $454.4 million, up from $385.7 million in the previous half.

 

Grain receivals for the half were 10.4 million tonnes, up from nine million tonnes in mid 2004/05.