Company Reports & Accounts


By Roger Dean Thomas Hutchinson and Sons Ltd


The principal activity of the company continues to be that of milling and the manufacture of animal feed.


The company submitted its report and annual accounts for the twelve months ending 31 March 2019 on Christmas Eve. Sales during the period under review amounted to £20,844,060, £2,724,983 or 15 per cent more than in the previous accounting period. The company’s direct costs in the year under review rose by £2.74 million or 17.7 per cent, meaning that the company’s Gross Profit during year was marginally ‘squeezed’, falling by 0.5 per cent compared with the previous accounting period. This is consistent with the experience of other feed manufacturers during the period in question, although the company appears to have been relatively successful in containing higher direct costs.


The company’s indirect costs – distribution and administrative – rose by £185,000 which resulted in a fall in operating profit of £197,000 or 26.8 per cent. Largely as a result, pretax profits of £541,000 were £197,000 or 26.7 per cent less than in the previous accounting year. The effects of higher raw material costs can clearly be seen in the company’s profit and loss account. Its direct cost ratio in the year under review was 87.4 per cent, the highest in five years. This was largely responsible for a pretax profit ratio of 2.6 per cent, compared to the average of the preceding four years of 4.6 per cent.


J.E. Porter Ltd.


This company filed its Report and Accounts for the twelve months ending 31 March 2019 on 30 December 2019.


The company’s principal activity is the processing of animal feed.


The company reported sales of £73.37 million during the year under review, £8.54 million or 13.2 per cent ahead of sales in the previous accounting year. With an increase in direct costs of £9.34 million or 15.3 per cent, the company’s Gross Profits fell by £799,000 or 21.3 per cent, confirming the view that, given market conditions, many companies found it difficult to recover rising feed material costs. The company incurred a sharp increase in indirect costs, from £1.27 million in the financial Year ending 31 March 2018 to £2.18 million in the year under review. This appears to be partly attributable to profits arising from the disposal of fixed assets and results in a sharp rise in the ratio of indirect costs to turnover.


In consequence of these developments, the company recorded a pretax profit of £1.03 million during the period under review, £1.56 million or 60.1 per cent less than during the previous accounting year. Looking at the company’s ratio analysis during the year in question,


PAGE 22 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 FEED COMPOUNDER


at 4 per cent, the Gross Margin ratio was at its lowest in 18 years, when the company started to submit full as opposed to medium accounts. The company’s indirect costs ratio, at 3 per cent, was at its highest in 18 years while its operating profit ratio was at its lowest in a similar time band. At 1.4 per cent, the company’s pretax profit ratio was at an eleven-year low. Altogether, a difficult year for the company.


Roger Skinner Ltd


This company reported its results for the twelve months ending 31 March 2019 on 3 January 2020.


The company’s core activities are the manufacture and supply of pet foods and the management of property. It should be noted that the company’s property investment activities were transferred to Roger Skinner Holdings on 28 March 2019 via a dividend in specie. During the period under review, the company’s sales amounted to £18.16 million, £1.47 million or 8.8 per cent ahead of year-earlier sales. Of this, sales from the company’s pet food activities amounted to £17.7 million, up by £1.5 million on the previous year.


The company’s direct costs during the year under review rose by £715,000 or 9.9 per cent. As a result, the company’s Gross Profits rose by £761,000 or 8 per cent.


Indirect costs rose by £910,000, split almost equally between distribution costs and administrative expenses. However, the increase in indirect costs was heavily weighted towards distribution costs, up by 19.4 per cent, as opposed to administrative expenses, up by 11.2 per cent.


As a result of these elements, the company’s operating profits, at £2.78 million during the year under review were £318,000 or 10.3 per cent lower than in the preceding financial year. After deducting the cost of interest, pretax profits for the twelve months in question amounted to £2,696,847, down from £3,015,470 in the previous accounting period. The company’s pre-tax profit ratio was at a five-year low, albeit that it was slightly higher than the next lowest ratio of 14.7 reported in 2014.


Gortavoy Feeds & Farm Supplies


This company submitted its Report and Accounts for the twelve months ending 31 March 2019 on 30 December 2019.


The principal activity of the company during the period under review was the sale of animal feeds, fertilizer and associated hardware. The company reported sales of £22.31 million in the period under review, up by £3.88 million or 21.1 per cent compared to the previous year. The Directors considered this ‘satisfactory’ in that the company’s Gross Profit percentage has increased from 8.7 per cent to 10.6 per cent in the current accounting period. The latter figure is the highest available from the available data going back ten years. The company’s indirect costs increased by £907,000 or 36.7 per cent to £1.24 million in the financial year under review; these were defined as administrative costs. This resulted in operating profits of £1.13 million, almost 63 per cent higher than in the previous accounting year. After deducting interest payments, pre-tax profits in the accounting year under review amounted to £1.1 million, up by £420,000 or 61.7 per cent on the preceding year.


Comment section is sponsored by Compound Feed Engineering Ltd www.cfegroup.com


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