Growing losses for poppy company

A POPPY-processing company with interests in Tasmania has suffered successive days of share price falls on the Australian Securities Exchange after reporting a $16.6 million loss for 2017.

TPI Enterprises was founded at Cressy in Tasmania in 2004 by managing director Jarrod Ritchie but moved its operations to Victoria in 2014.

Shares in the company dropped from $2 to $1.45 on Wednesday and a further six cents to close at $1.39 yesterday — wiping a total of nearly $50 million from the company’s market capitalisation.

The 2017 loss came despite a doubling of revenue to $22.2 million following the purchase of a Norwegian processor in October.

The company, which sources and processes poppies into morphine, codeine, oripavine and thebaine, reported a $14 million loss after tax in 2016.

Industry sources believe TPI has contracted about 1300ha with Tasmanian farmers worth about $4 million in the 2017-18 season.

In its full-year financial results TPI Enterprises said the loss was caused by supply interruptions, unfavourable foreign exchange rates and softerthan-expected sales of finished dosage codeine phosphate tablets into the UK during the last quarter.

“This coincided with investing in additional headcount in Australia in anticipation of increasing manufacturing volumes, which were ultimately delayed,” the report said.