ANNUAL RISE
Astral sets sights on further growth
Astral Foods, the "big bird" of the JSE’s poultry sector, assured shareholders at Thursday’s annual meeting that management would not be resting on its laurels after a hugely profitable 2017 financial year. In the year to end-September Astral almost doubled headline earnings to R735m, or 1899c per share, with the poultry segments margins fattened up to 6.4% as trading conditions improved after a prolonged period of drought. The company also declared a bumper final dividend of 875c per share to bring the full year payout to 1,055c per share. Noting that Astral had shown improvement in operating efficiencies over the past few years, Opportune Investments CEO Chris Logan asked whether there was not a risk management might rest on its laurels. Astral CEO Chris Schutte said management looked to improve the business on a day-to-day basis and would never rest on their laurels. He said recent further improvements to the agricultural side of the business were already paying off. "If you don’...
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