DaChan’s Food Business Grows 16%, While Overall Results Remain Stable
Hong Kong, 22 March 2013 – As the leading chicken
meat products supplier in China, DaChan Food (Asia) Limited (“DaChan Food” or
the “Company”, stock code: 3999) announced its 2012 annual results on 22 March.
Amidst the challenging business environment during the year, DaChan Food
implemented a series of measures to maintain the growth of its overall results.
The processed food segment saw strong performance, growing its revenue by 16.2%
as compared to the corresponding period of 2011, while gross profit rose more
notably by 39.1%, making the food business the most important source of revenue
growth.
During the period under review, DaChan’s sales
increased 2% to RMB 11.44 billion as compared to the corresponding period of
2011. Affected by the sluggish market environment and meat price, gross profit
decreased 15.3%, from RMB 856 million in 2011 to RMB 728 million, and profit attributable
to equity shareholders of the Company decreased to RMB 72 million.
The processed food segment enjoyed the most
outstanding performance among all business segments. During the year, the
Company continued its established growth strategy in the processed and branded
food business, and strengthened risk control over breeding and rearing. In
2012, the processed food segment recorded revenue of approximately RMB 1.74
billion with an increase in gross profit of 39.1% to RMB 246 million. During
the period, DaChan Group consolidated its resources in streamlining distribution
channels, developing new products, and improving production technology. The
Company enriched its product mix by introducing sausage products under the
“Sisters’ Kitchen” brand, including meat sausage, cartilage sausage, Taixu pork
sausage and rice sausage, as well as high-end native chicken (Fei Xue Tu Ji)
products in the retail market. The Company also enhanced communication with the
retail market through multiple channels, such as the Internet, Weibo, online stores
and distributor conferences.
With the increasing
domestic concern over food safety, DaChan Food further optimized its food
traceability system for the “Sisters’ Kitchen” brand and related products. During
the year, the Group launched a campaign named ”Mobilize for 100% Safe Food” (
“安心
100
總動員”
) to reinforce the
internal management of food safety, and form a culture of quality assurance
against three fundamental risks: drug residue, foreign objects, and
degradation. The pre- and post-
slaughter dual testing system resulted in increased control of meat quality,
and guaranteed that 100% of our products passed the randomized institutional
tests during the “Fast Grown Chicken” incident.
In 2012, raw material prices rose more rapidly than meat prices, which
affected the performance of the meat business. Revenue of the poultry meat
segment of DaChan Food was RMB 5 billion, 2.7% lower than the corresponding
period of 2011, with a 74.7% decline in gross profit. The feed segment was also
affected by the price of raw materials and increasingly fierce competition,
resulting in lower than expected business growth. Revenue increased 2.5% to RMB
4.69 billion while gross profit margin was squeezed to 9.2% from 10.7% the
previous year.
“In 2012, DaChan Food actively responded to the market downturn,” said Mr.
Han Jia-Hwan, Chairman of the Board of DaChan Food, “In the future, economic
recovery in China, urbanization and rural economic reform will present new
development opportunities for quality food companies participating in the
breeding and rearing industry. The Group will use these opportunities to
reinforce our brand’s traits of high quality and safety, improve operational
profitability and further cultivate our brand awareness. Also, by bolstering
the performance of the meat segment, we can better guard the Group against
industry risk. Meanwhile, the research and development achievements on feeds in
2012 will be reflected in the results for this year.”