Fruit and veg giant Total reports £36m pre-tax profits

GLOBAL fruit and vegetable distributor Total Produce made a €39m (£36m) pre-tax profit in the first half of the year, an 11.8% increase on the first half of 2016. Revenue was 12.2% higher at €2.15bn (£1.98bn) in the period.

The results benefited from the contribution of recent acquisitions, offset in part by a negative impact on the translation to euro of the results of foreign currency denominated operations, the group said.

Dublin-based Total Produce, whose chief executive is Rory Byrne, described trading conditions in the period as “satisfactory”.

“In the early part of the year, unusual weather conditions in southern Europe led to temporary shortages of certain salad and vegetable lines. However, given the group’s diversified business model this did not have a material impact.

“Our North American division experienced relatively less favourable trading conditions in the period,” it added. “While overall volumes in this division have increased on a like-for-like basis from prior year, the result was impacted by lower pricing due to greater volumes of product in the market and weather conditions that negatively impacted quality.”

Total Produce generated €903.1m (£832m) of its revenue in the Eurozone during the first half of the year and €800m from non-Eurozone European countries. International operations delivered revenue of €471.3m (£434m).

Non-Eurozone European countries accounted for the biggest slice of profits, posting adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €22.1m (£20.4m) .

During the first half of the year, Total Produce paid €28.4m (£26m) to increase its shareholding in the Canada-based Oppenheimer group from 35% to 65%.

The Oppenheimer Group had annual sales of about C$1bn (£0.6bn).