ISI group posts loss in ‘challenging year’
ICELAND Seafood International Chief Executive Bjarni Ármannsson said 2022 had been a challenging year for the company, thanks to cost inflation and the impact of the war in the Ukraine.
ISI’s normalised profit before tax for 2022 was ¼12.4m (£10.9m), down ¼7.1m from 2021. Net loss for the ISI group in full year 2022 (under International Financial Reporting Standards) was ¼9.9m (£8.7m) compared with ¼8.8m (£7.8m) profit in 2021.
This was on sales of ¼420.8m (£372.4m), up 11% from 2021. Net margin for the group was ¼46.3m (£40.8m), up ¼1.0m from 2021 but down ¼1.6m on like-for-like basis.
ISI’s portfolio includes extensive salmon interests in Spain and Ireland, as well as its loss-making UK subsidiary, Grimsby-based Icelandic Seafood UK. ISI put up the latter up for sale last year, but later withdrew after two offers collapsed, opting to keep the Grimsby operation for now. However, the sale option may be revisited later this year.
The loss from Iceland Seafood UK (IS UK) in 2022 was ¼18.2m (£16m).
Ármannsson told shareholders: “The year was characterised by the war in Ukraine, which caused disruptions in supply chains and excessive increase in input costs – which we struggled to push on to our customers, and in any case, with a time lag [ie price increases lagged behind cost increases].
“As input prices continued to increase, we were constantly pushing through insufficient price increases once they came through the system. This vicious cycle cost us dearly.
“But Iceland Seafood is in it for the long term. We pride ourselves on being close to the market and [the fact] that our customers can rely on our ability to deliver our products at the quality standards required.
“We are now seeing cost of input factors stabilise, and in some cases decline, so we are now operating in a more normal environment. We continue our sustainability efforts, to measure and reduce our carbon footprint, and create the necessary balance with the nature going forward.”
He added: “Iceland Seafood had a particularly rough period in our UK operations and in November we decided to put our valueadded assets in Grimsby [up] for sale.
“It was, then, the results of our evaluation in the beginning of February this year to continue the operation.
“We still intend to participate in consolidation in the industry in the UK, which is badly needed. Despite this, most of our other operations managed well in turbulent waters, a sign of the solid and stable foundation they are built on.”