The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Kettle weathers storms to produce £101m revenues
NEVER-ENDING rain did not stop Fife-based farming operation Kettle Produce improving returns and breaking through the £100 million turnover barrier last year, newly-posted accounts have shown.
Documents lodged at Companies House yesterday revealed how revenues rose by 5.5% to £101.4m during the 12 months to June 1, while pre-tax profits came in at £914,000.
The creditable performance follows an £814,000 slip during the previous year — a reverse which had been blamed on a massive jump in depreciation costs following the installation of new machinery at the firm’s fire-hit facility at Orkie.
Kettle— which produces 100,000 tonnes of fresh root vegetables, brassicas and salad crops destined for supermarket shelves each year — described the performance as “satisfactory” following efforts to cut costs amid dreadful weather conditions.
It works in partnership with more than 50 farmers, mostly in Fife, the Lothians, Perthshire and Angus, but also from the south-west and Aberdeenshire, to cultivate more than 2,500 hectares of vegetable and salad crops.
The company, based at Balmalcolm Farm by Cupar, said trading had proven “extremely difficult” thanks to unprecedentedly poor weather conditions during the year at issue.
It said rainfall was up 73% during the summer of 2012, with the growing season also blighted by unusually cool and dull conditions.
The combination led to yields falling to between 60% and 80% of the company’s budgeted level.
That October also proved a washout, while December saw more than twice the normal level of rainfall.
“December saw a further 164mm of rain (209% of average) which made it virtually impossible to harvest root crops and, indeed, harvesters ground to a halt temporarily in the third week of December — the busiest week of the year for the business,” directors said.
“Further heavy rain in January and a very prolonged winter and one of the latest springs in living memory completed the cycles for the worst growing season since records began.”
Directors also revealed that the weatherrelated difficulties forced the board to take steps to contain costs — including a delay to planned investments.
Kettle’s average monthly staffing level climbed 5% on the previous year to 819, while total staff costs rose 4.1% to £16.2m.
But the board also warned that the present financial year had brought its own difficulties.
“The new financial year has brought fresh challenges as we face a complete contrast to the weather of last year,” the directors’ report added.
“Sales of vegetables were depressed during the summer due to high temperatures, but growing conditions are favourable and the directors look forward to satisfactory trading for the rest of the year.”
The firm was established in 1985 by the McIntyre and Samson families, who had been growing in partnership since 1976.