Scales declares strong first half performance

The company announced underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $86.7 million, up 43% on this time last year.

Scales Corporation’s managing director Andy Borland says the global proteins division continues to produce a consistent overall divisional performance, with increases in petfood ingredients and edible proteins sales volumes.

“Meateor Australia had a particularly strong first half, delivering ahead of forecast with its year-to-date margins up on expectations,” Borland says. “Fayman, the edible proteins business, also delivered a robust performance, with continued strong sales across Asia and United States markets.”

The company’s horticulture division delivered an underlying EBITDA of $53.2 million, up 77%.

Forecast total own-grown export volumes for Mr Apple are 3.7 million tray carton equivalents (TCEs), a projected increase of 21%.

“The strong performance in horticulture highlights the success of our long-term strategy to invest in apple varieties tailored for key markets in Asia and the Middle East – a strategy that was accelerated by last year's Bostock transaction,” says Borland.

Read More:

• Bumper season for top apple exporter
• 'Outstanding results in a period of change'
• Scales purchases Bostock assets

“There were significant increases in our DazzleTM and PosyTM  volumes as a result of strategy,” he says.

Borland says those varieties are forecast to account for over 25% of Premium volumes in 2025, with the proportion of Premium apple volumes overall also increasing to around 75% in 2025.

Mike Petersen, chair of Scales Corporation says the performance from the company’s horticulture division is, in part, due to it realising the benefit of long-term strategic investment in apple varieties targeted to the Asia & Middle East markets.

“We expect further benefits to be realised over forthcoming periods,” he adds.

“Global Proteins is also progressing its strategic growth goals and is continuing to produce steady results,” Petersen says. “Logistics benefitted from higher freight and handling volumes in the first half of the year and continues to prove its strategic value to both internal and external customers.”

“As always, these results are a reflection of the skill and expertise of Scales’ management and staff, who are responsible for executing each of the divisional strategies, and we are hugely appreciative of their hard work,” he says.