September 25, 2009
Nortura bleeds heavily in Jan-Aug
Nortura, a Norwegian meat and poultry cooperative, lost NOK232 million in the first eight months of 2009, compared with a profit of NOK18 million in the same period last year.
The operating result clocked a negative NOK145 million, down from a profit of NOK109 million a year ago.
Due to the severe losses, Nortura has launched a series of cost reduction schemes, including lower staff numbers, the closure of production units and manufacturing fewer products.
The group has been affected by the rise in own labels in the food retailers and is considering an entry in the own label market to meet this competition.
A bright spot in the results was that Nortura saw revenues rising slightly to NOK10.2 billion this year from NOK10.1 billion a year ago.
US$1 = NOK5.83187 (Sep 25)
