Thai Union performance

Its quarterly gross profit margin is said to have improved to 15.15% from 13.8% and the quarterly operating profit jumped up 54.6% to THB 1,454m.

Thiraphong Chansiri, president and CEO of TU, said: “Despite the seasonal low period, we have still managed to generate a 9.3% increase in sales for this quarter from a year ago.”

“Our 2016 first quarter performance is on track to achieve our full year target. This is another example of our resilience and ability to grow, despite challenges faced by both the global and Thai seafood industries.”

The higher operating margin is expected to be the result of low tuna and shrimp raw material costs and a weak Thai baht.

Other contributing factors could include the continually improving pet care business, the seafood business in Europe and better margin in US subsidiaries.

“Volatile foreign exchange rates; tuna and shrimp prices; uncertain global economic conditions and sustainability issues faced by the country have not discouraged us from outperforming the industry,” said Mr Chansiri.

He added: “This is thanks to our teams’ efforts in achieving efficiency and cost savings to boost our margins, together with the consolidation of Rügen Fisch into the Thai Union family.”

The tuna category still commanded the largest share of business, accounting for 38% followed by shrimp related business at 26% and salmon business at 9%.

Net profit dropped 19% over the past year, as a result of an absence of a sizeable FX gain which was reported last year.

As a result of this, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) also declined slightly by 6.6%.

Me Chansiri, concluded: “Also, our financial position has improved thanks to strong free cash flows. This has allowed us to bring our net debt-to-equity ratio down to 0.69x from 0.76x at the end of 2015. This means that we are ready for any new investment opportunity that could further support our growth strategy.”