A more stable milk market and exit from the industry pension fund sparked a strong profit rebound at National Milk Records.
NMR provides a range of services for dairy herd farmers and profits in the half year to December more than doubled to £957,000 as conditions eased for the sector.
Andy Warne, managing director said the comparative year had been exceptionally tough, but it was a strong interim performance nonetheless. Sales rose 11% to £10.5mln while underlying profits were 40% ahead at £1.19mln.
Cash generation from operations was £1.1mln, while net debt dropped to £3.3mln.
“This is the first set of results following our exit from the Milk Pension Fund in June 2017,” said Warne. NMR paid the Milk Pension Fund £10.1mln last year for its exit and £4.7mln to Genus PLC, which is liable for the fund.
Warne said the plan was to keep servicing core milk recording customers while increasing testing for dairy cattle health and provenance. Short-term that will mean tests for Johne’s disease and BVD and more longer-term projects such as heat detection, genomics and anti-microbial resistance.
“We recognise that milk prices are beginning to reduce as we enter 2018, but, despite this, we are well positioned to carry our performance into the second half of the financial year,” he added.
NMR is listed on the NEX exchange.
Source: Proactive Investors