Europe's largest sugar producer, Südzucker, has posted a rise of almost 40% in full year operating profit as improved sugar and bioethanol markets boosted earnings.
Group operating profit in the full financial year 2021/22 to the end of February rose to €330 million, from €236 million in the previous year, the company said in an advance release of its annual results.
It had previously forecast full-year group operating profit of between €320 million and €380 million.
“The results have benefited from a good performance by the sugar sector and also from bioethanol,” a Südzucker spokesperson told Reuters. “Sugar demand in the EU remains stable and prices have improved since last year, but in our view are still not satisfactory.”
'Cost-Cutting Programme'
“We also continue to see benefits from our recent corporate restructuring and cost-cutting programme.”
Südzucker unit CropEnergies, which produces the green fuel bioethanol, also posted improved results this week.
“In the current energy crisis we hope that more attention will be given to bioethanol as an environmentally friendly and sustainable energy source to reduce Europe’s dependency on crude oil,” the spokesman added.
Südzucker group sales for the year rose about 13.4% to about €7.6 billion. The company proposed a full-year dividend of 40 euro cents against 20 cents last year.
The group's full annual results will now be released on 19 May, with no interim results on 25 April as previously scheduled, it said.
Last month, the german sugar producer announced its decision to join the EIT Food Accelerator Network (FAN) to increase investments and activities around plant-based solutions.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. For more A-Brands news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
