International agri-services group Origin Enterprises has reported a fall in revenues and pre-tax profits for the six months to the end of January amid challenging planting and weaker in-field conditions across its markets.
Origin said its half year group revenue fell to €854.9m from €1.180 billion the same time last year on the back of an expected correction in global feed and fertiliser raw materials pricing.
The company said its pre-tax profit dropped to €5.3m from €13.3m but added that came in the context of a very strong H1 2023 performance on the back of rising commodity markets and strong on-farm demand.
Origin has declared an interim dividend of 3.15 cent per share, unchanged from the same time last year.
It said that diversification of profit drivers, geographic and sectoral, continues to reduce the impact of adverse weather events in its core UK and Ireland market on its overall profitability.
Origin's chief executive Sean Coyle said the company group delivered a "solid operating profit" in the six month period compared to a very strong performance the same time last year.
Mr Coyle said a challenging planting profile and a downward-moving price environment resulted in reduced early season volumes across its portfolio, with Ireland and the UK, and Continental Europe experiencing more challenging conditions.
"Latin America and our Amenity, Environmental and Ecology businesses delivered solid results despite also being impacted by fertiliser price dynamics," he added.
"The integration of recent complementary acquisitions in the Amenity, Environmental, and Ecology division
continues to progress, including our most recent acquisition, Groundtrax Systems Limited, which extends
our product range and offering in the sustainable urban drainage systems sector," the CEO said.
"Our ambition is for this division to represent 30% of Group operating profit by the end of FY26 and on 1 August 2024 TJ Kelly will move from the CFO role to take up a role as Divisional MD reflecting this ambition," he added.
Shares in the company were lower in Dublin trade today.
