Carrs Group Regulatory News (CARR)

9 Jan 2007 07:00

Carr's Milling Industries PLC09 January 2007 CARR'S MILLING INDUSTRIES PLC Chairman's AGM Statement / Acquisition AGM STATEMENT At this morning's AGM in Carlisle of Carr's, the Cumbria-based agriculture, foodand engineering group, the Chairman, Lord (Richard) Inglewood, will make thefollowing Statement: "In the 52 weeks to 2 September 2006, Carr's achieved an eighth successiveannual increase in both adjusted pre-tax profit and adjusted basic earnings pershare. Revenue increased by 26.3% to £242.6m, partially due to the inclusion forthe full year of the Pye animal feed business acquired by an associate in July2005 and of the Meneba flour business acquired in November 2004. On an adjustedbasis (as defined in the Preliminary Announcement of 13 November 2006), pre-taxprofit was up 9.2% at £7.3m and basic earnings per share rose 17.3% to 59.7p.Reflecting the Group's progressive dividend policy, its good performance and thestrength of its business, the Board is proposing an increase in the finaldividend per share of 13.6% to 12.5p, making a total for the year of 18.0p, up12.5% and covered 3.3 times by adjusted basic earnings per share. Four months of the year to 1 September 2007 have now elapsed and prospectsremain substantially as set out in the Preliminary Announcement. In Agriculture, trading is favourable in feed blocks (in each of the UK, the USAand Germany), retail/machinery and oil distribution. In the UK, the farm gatemilk price received by our customers remains low and continues to have anegative impact on our margins for compound feed and on sales of fertiliser.Farmers are holding off fertiliser purchases at this early stage of the seasonto an even greater extent than last year. All three joint venture feed companiesestablished in 2006 - Afgritech in England, Bibby Agriculture in Wales andCrystalyx Products in Germany - have started well. Indeed, the new plant at ourfeed mill at Langwathby (Cumbria) to produce by-pass protein for ruminantanimals was commissioned, on target, in November and the early results areencouraging. As predicted in the Preliminary Announcement, the massive increase in wheatprices, combined with high energy costs, will make it a tough year for food.There remains an inevitable lag in successfully passing on cost increases tocustomers. With little change likely in the foreseeable future, we arecontinuing to look for both cost savings and volume increases to protect thebottom line. Engineering, much the smallest of the three Divisions, is trading slightly aheadof budget, but, as predicted in the Preliminary Announcement, will do well tomatch last year's improved result. The Board continues to believe that to achieve a ninth successive increase inGroup profit before tax will be challenging, but is feasible. Across the Group,everyone is striving to ensure that all opportunities are exploited fully to tryto maintain our record of profit increases. ACQUISITION Finally, I can announce a small acquisition which completed yesterday. JohnstoneFuels & Lubricants Limited is an oil distribution business with three depots inthat part of south-west Scotland served by our Agriculture business - atDumfries, Castle Douglas and Newton Stewart. In the year ended 30 April 2006,Johnstone reported an audited turnover of £13.5m and, at that date, it had grossassets of £2,807,000 and shareholders' funds of £859,000. Johnstone's businesswill complement the oil distribution business of Wallace Oils, which wasacquired in April 2005 and operates out of three depots in north-west Englandand south-west Scotland." Enquiries: Carr's Milling Industries plc 01228-554 600 Chris Holmes (Chief Executive Officer) Ron Wood (Finance Director) Bankside Consultants Limited Charles Ponsonby 020-7367 8851 charles.ponsonby@bankside.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange