Camellia PLC Trading Update (4149W)
December 22 2021 - 1:59AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMCAM
RNS Number : 4149W
Camellia PLC
22 December 2021
22 December 2021
Camellia Plc
(the "Company")
Trading update
Camellia (CAM.L) announces the following trading update for the
group (the "Group") as we approach our year end of 31 December.
People
First, we would like to thank all of our staff around the world
for their continuing support and efforts in what continues to be a
difficult and uncertain operating environment.
Trading
Agriculture
Whilst the majority of our agricultural operations have
continued to operate broadly as normal, there have been a number of
developments worth noting:
-- In India, very dry weather together with continuing COVID-19
related plucking restrictions have resulted in a significantly
reduced crop. However, this has been offset by higher production
and improved prices in Bangladesh.
-- In Kenya, despite the continued high levels of countrywide
crop previously reported, the introduction in the summer of the new
tea regulations has resulted in a significant uplift to the tea
prices at auction. However, oversupply of avocado in the European
market meant that the prices achieved for our Hass crop are likely
to be well below our expectations.
-- In Malawi, favourable weather conditions resulted in a higher than expected tea crop.
-- In Brazil, we achieved better than expected yields and prices on our arable crops.
-- Further to the announcement made on 17 November 2021, with
regard to the acquisition of Bardsley England where we indicated
volumes were lower than we hoped, we have now undertaken a major
cost-cutting and restructuring exercise in order for the business
to reach its full potential, the benefits of which will be seen
next year.
-- Cost saving initiatives and productivity improvements across
the Group have yielded better than expected results.
Engineering and Food Service
Following a period of improved trading as the hotel and leisure
sector opened up over the summer, the rising cases of the Omicron
variant have resulted in a slow down in the hospitality sector in
the lead up to Christmas, stalling the recovery in our food service
businesses.
AJT has experienced lower activity from the oil and gas sector,
and delays to a number of contracts due to due to disruption in its
supply chain.
Associates
Our associated company, BF&M, recently announced a strong Q3
result and has had a hurricane free season which has led us to
increase our projection for the year.
Financial Position
These changes have resulted in improved margins for a number of
our agriculture businesses which coupled with the rigorous
cost-saving measures implemented across the Group, leads the Board
to believe that the underlying profit before tax* for the year is
likely to be substantially above market forecasts in the range of
GBP7-9 million on revenue which is now expected to be 4-5% below
market expectations.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.
* Underlying profit before tax seeks to present an indication of
the underlying performance which is not impacted by exceptional
items or items considered non-operational in nature and for example
excludes impairment charges, gains/losses on disposal of assets and
restructuring costs.
Enquiries
Camellia Plc 01622 746655
Tom Franks, CEO
Susan Walker, CFO
Panmure Gordon 020 7886 2500
Nominated Adviser and Broker
Emma Earl
Erik Anderson
Maitland/amo
PR
William Clutterbuck 07785 292617
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END
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