“The new vision of Podravka, which began with the reorganisation and the launch of new business programmes, has fully met expectations in business results in 2018. Concentration on traditional markets and faster innovation cycles with key brands and categories have brought the company the best operating result in its long history,” said Podravka’s CEO Marin Pucar after the company announced business results for the past year, reports Večernji List on February 26, 2019.
Sales revenues of the Podravka Group in 2018 amounted to 4.2 billion kuna, about 3% more than the previous year. Net profits reached a record 205.7 million kuna, while the year before they amounted to 18.2 million.
The business report points out that this is the best result in 70 years of Podravka history. “The key element is that last year we focused on our own brands and traditional markets. In the five previous years, Podravka grew through acquisitions and had no organic growth, so higher production and sales of its own products had a positive impact on the entire company”, said Pucar.
After the shutdown operations in China and Africa, the markets that were seen to be unprofitable, the innovation-development cycle has given birth to super-projects, and the company saw significant growth in the Food division.
The second segment of the group, Pharmaceuticals, generated 896.9 million kuna in sales revenue, representing a growth of 3.4% or 29.4 million kuna compared to the previous year. Podravka’s own brands grew by 2.5%, mainly due to the continued growth of Russia’s market demand and the expansion of distribution in the markets of Central Europe.
Podravka says that the most substantial increase in revenues, in the amount of 71.5 million kuna, was recorded by the Adria region. In the Central Europe region, sales revenue rose by 30.2 million kuna, in Western Europe and overseas countries by 13 million and in Eastern Europe by 5.6 million.
Podravka share price increased by 38.9% in 2018, while local stock indices Crobex and Crobex10 fell by 5.1 and 5.6% respectively. Total indebtedness of the Podravka Group decreased by 303.7 million kuna.
“Today we can say that Podravka can be compared with companies from international markets in key business parameters,” said Pucar. He added that this business year would be more demanding than the previous one, given certain raw material supply disruptions and the fact that the collective agreement has also increased employees’ rights. But projects started last year are the guarantor of the company’s success, says Pucar.
“The growing number of foreign tourists, the growth and consolidation of the HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, catering) market, and more and more 4-5-star hotels – all this is driving up the demand for quality products that Podravka produces. New products are also being launched in the culinary segment – and if they achieve good results, Podravka will have excellent financial indicators in the coming years as well,” concluded Pucar.
More news about Podravka can be found in the Business section.
Translated from Večernji List (reported by Jolanda Rak Šajn).
