Company Reports & Accounts


By Roger Dean


Company law states that companies in the UK, with certain exceptions, must submit their annual reports and accounts to Companies House within nine months of the end of their financial year. From a very general point of view, most companies appear to use the majority or all of this period to prepare their statutory accounts.


Gilbertson & Page Ltd The accounts for this company for the period ending 31 December 2018 were filed on 21 August 2019. The business of this company is defined as the manufacture of prepared feeds for farm animals and the manufacture of prepared pet foods. However, the principal activity of the parent company is later defined as the manufacturing and marketing of pet food. During the period under review, the company reported turnover


of £27.99 million, £2 million or 7.7 per cent more than in the previous accounting year. The company’s accounts show consistent sales growth over the past decade. Recent years have seen the feed industry reporting significant


increases in raw material costs, resulting in pressures on Gross Margins. In the year under review, the company recorded a Gross Margin ratio (Gross Margin / Turnover) of 22.3 an increase compared to the previous accounting year of 21.8 per cent and a slight improvement of the company’s ten-year average of 22 per cent. The company recorded a distribution cost ratio of 5.5 per cent, a


slight improvement on the previous accounting year. The administrative cost ratio increased to 13.6 per cent, slightly ahead of the previous year’s 13.2 per cent. These cost developments resulted in a slight improvement in the operating profit ratio, although not to the extent of the average 5.5 per cent of the previous five years. The company’s pretax profit for the year under review, at £892,733, was £137,879 or 18.3 per cent ahead of the previous accounting year.


NWF Agriculture Ltd The great majority of the data used in this column is derived directly from the statutory Reports and Accounts submitted by companies to Companies House. However, at the time of writing, NWF had not submitted its annual Report & Accounts, so the following is derived from material provided by the company on its website. The company operates in three distinct areas: food, feeds and


fuels. NWF Agriculture Ltd, the company dealing with the manufacture and distribution of livestock feed, recorded revenues of £180.4 million in the year ending 31 May 2019, up by £10.5 million or 6.2 per cent on the preceding accounting period. This was, according to the company, largely as a result of increased feed prices. The company noted there had been ‘some volatility’ in the feed market during the year, with a significant increase in demand from farmers during the long dry summer period which resulted in increased feed rates in order to offset the consequent


PAGE 22 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 FEED COMPOUNDER


lack of forage. In the winter this situation was reversed, with good grazing


conditions reducing ruminant feed demand, particularly for sheep feeds, in comparison to the long cold winter which characterized the previous year. Commodity prices increased by over 10 per cent by the end of August, they then consistently fell to end the year 14 per cent lower. As a result, customers experienced higher summer prices but then gained relief in the autumn and winter periods. The company’s operating profit was £2.8 million, down from the £3.0 million operating profit recorded in the 2018 financial year. Total feed volumes were relatively stable at 591,000 tonnes, marginally higher compared with the previous year’s 589,000 tonnes. These developments took place against a background of milk prices


that were largely stable, increasing from 27.1p to 27.9p per litre over the period, including a high of 31.6p per litre in November 2018. On the back of this more positive environment, milk production increased by 1.6 per cent to 12.6 billion litres, against 12.4 billion litres during the previous year. Reflecting these developments, NWF Agriculture has grown to be a leading national supplier of ruminant animal feed to 4,750 customers in the UK, feeding ‘a reported one in six dairy cows in Britain’.


ForFarmers UK ForFarmers UK has posted their first half year result seen in the table below as a comparison to 2018’s figures. The company commented that the decline in total feed volume was a result of reduced production of ruminant feed due to the mild winter and a fall in pig feed production only partially compensated for by a growth in poultry feed production. Gross profit fell from €63.7m to €60.9m despite margins improving in the pig sector.


(in €m)


Total Feed volume (in kT) Revenue


Gross Profit


Underlying operating expenses Underlying EBITDA Underlying EBIT


Underlying EBITDA/Gross profit ROACE (on underlying EBITDA)


H1 2019 1,390 338.7 60.9 -59.5 8.8 1.4


14.5% 10.8%


H1 2018 1,448 321.6 63.7 -58.5 11.1 5.1


17.4% 11.1%


C.J. Wildbird Foods Ltd This company filed its accounts for the year ending 31 March 2019 on 2 September 2019. The nature of the company’s business is the manufacture of prepared pet foods, of which the preparation of high- quality foods for birds is an important component. The company has branches in the Netherlands and Lithuania. The company reported sales amounting to £26.3 million in the year


under review, an increase of £1.8 million or 7.4 per cent over the previous accounting year. This was the fourth successive annual growth in sales reported by the company. As regards the cost of sales, the company incurred direct costs


amounting to £18.6 million in the year under review. This translated into a Gross Profit of £7.74 million, an increase of £204,000 or 2.7 per cent over the figures reported in the previous financial year and represented a second successive decline In the company’s Gross Profit ratio, although


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


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