International agri-services group Origin Enterprises has reported lower revenues for the year to the end of July on the back of what it called "particularly challenging" trading conditions during the year.
Origin Enterprises said its revenue for the 12 months fell by 16.7% to €2 billion, on the back of lower global feed and fertiliser raw materials pricing, which was partly offset by a 7.1% volume increase driven by a recovery in fertiliser volumes and strong feed volumes.
The company reported operating profits of €83.5m and adjusted EPS3 of 48.06 cent - which were at the upper end of guidance range, and down 8% and 9.6% respectively on the previous year.
It noted that volume growth improved to 12.7% in the second half of its financial year as demand for feed and fertiliser improved and crop protection volumes benefited from strong late season applications.
Origin's chief executive Sean Coyle said the results are a significant improvement on the last challenging weather year experienced in 2020, which is testament to the growth in Fertiliser and Feed operations, Central Europe and LATAM performance and the group's ongoing diversification and expansion into Living Landscapes.
He said the company's Agriculture businesses delivered an operating profit of €71.6m, a 10.1% reduction on the previous year - mainly driven by the UK market which experienced a reduced planted area and delayed on-farm activity as a result of challenging early season drilling and application window.
"To ensure the business is better aligned to the future margin opportunity, we had to take the difficult decision to reduce staff numbers in our UK agronomy business," the CEO said.
He said the company's animal feed joint ventures in Ireland delivered strong results, largely as a result of the increased demand for feed due to the poor weather.
"The group's performance was supported by the growth of our newly branded 'Living Landscapes' operations, which includes our amenity, ecology, and environmental businesses," the CEO said.
"We made progress on our strategic objective of expanding our footprint in this space, with the completion of two complementary acquisitions during the year and a further two subsequent to year end," he said.
He noted that Living Landscapes now accounts for 14.2% of the group's operating profit, up from 12.2% last year and said the company remains ambitious for further acquisition and organic growth in the coming years.
"While trading conditions have been particularly challenging throughout FY24, the resilience of our business model and increased diversity of our earnings profile is evident in our solid full year performance," Sean Coyle said.
He said that Origin Enterprises remains well on track to deliver its strategic, operational and financial goals.
Shares in the company moved higher in Dublin trade today.
