Wynnstay profits fall to £4.7 million

After a record year in 2013, the Llansantffraid based group, which also has a major base just outside Shrewsbury, saw like-for-like sales drop by one per cent in the first half of its new trading year, while pre-tax profit fell by 10 per cent to £4.7 million.

Whereas during the unprecedented wintry weather that dragged on into the spring in 2013, animals were kept indoors and relied on bagged feed bought from suppliers such as Wynnstay, this year they have been put out to grass much sooner, affecting the group's sales.

That meant that in its agricultural division, where revenue hit £171.5 million, normal seasonal demand was lower.

And in its retail division revenue was £50.8 million as animal owners bought less bagged feed to get them through colder periods. Its Just For Pets pet shop division saw sales increase by 3.2 per cent, however.

Including the £9 million contributed by the newly acquired Carmarthen & Pumsaint Farmers business, Wynnstay's overall revenue rose by three per cent to £222.5 million.

The better weather is expected to have a positive impact in the second half, with the group predicting a strong harvest that will benefit its business.

Chief executive Ken Greetham said: "While pre-tax profit is behind last year's record level, this year's results were achieved in trading conditions which differed markedly to the prior year and continue to demonstrate the strength of Wynnstay's broad spread of activities.

"The variation between the two first halves largely reflected the weather conditions, which in both periods was atypical for the season.

"The unusually mild weather in the first half gave rise to a different demand pattern across our products and market segments against the same period last year. Nonetheless, Wynnstay's performance within agricultural products was robust and encouraging given the market conditions."

Wynnstay also predicted a continued upturn in the performance of UK farming.

Chairman Jim McCarthy added: "Following two successive years of unusual weather patterns, which have had a significant effect on all aspects of agriculture, the UK industry appears to be returning to more normalised levels of production.

"Price volatility for agricultural outputs will remain, influenced by world markets, and we expect pricing pressure from end users of agricultural products to continue. In addition, the requirement for the agricultural industry to become more efficient remains an ongoing trend.

"Nonetheless, the long term outlook for UK agriculture continues to read very positively, supported by increasing world food demand as well as domestic factors including targets for greater self-sufficiency in foods."