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New packs seal SPC Ardmona growth
25 Feb 2004
Shepparton-based fruit and vegetable processor SPC Ardmona has emerged from the drought relatively unscathed, reporting an 8.2 per cent net profit lift for the 2003 calendar year to $26.3 million. MD Nigel Garrard said revenue rose 7.8 per cent last year to nearly $490 million. The revenue growth was helped by healthy domestic sales of the company's one-kilogram resealable fruit packs. SPC Ardmona plans to launch more lines of the resealable packs.
The company declared a final dividend of 3 cents, bringing the full-year pay-out to 6 cents.
Mr Garrard, when announcing the results yesterday, questioned the rationale behind the Australia-US free trade agreement. The current 18 per cent duty paid by Australian exporters to the US will be cut over 18 years, he said, but the 5 per cent levy charged on US processors will be abolished immediately. However, Mr Garrard said the US is a net importer of processed fruit and is unlikely to try to penetrate the Australian market.
The Age, 25/2/04.
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