Pioneer Foods finally puts drought behind it
The group expects to struggle for top-line growth amid tough competition in second half-year
Pioneer Foods showed a strong recovery in interim profit, but the consumer brands giant will still struggle for top-line growth traction in the second half of the financial year to end-September as it negotiates a competitive trading environment. Interim results on Monday showed Pioneer — which owns household staples such as Sasko, Weet-Bix, Safari and Liqui-Fruit — taking a 3% slip in revenue to just less than R10bn as price deflation in soft commodities weakened prices mainly in maize and, to a lesser extent, wheat and rice. But Pioneer’s headline earnings in the six months to end March – after a precipitous fall in the 2017 interim period – recovered 30% to R592m or 317c per share. CEO Tertius Carstens said although there would probably be a sales uplift in the last trading quarter, it would not be sufficient to grow top line for the full financial year. “We’re likely to see some deflation at top line, or at best a flat performance.” He indicated, though, that volume growth would...
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