Hellaby shapes up

Press, 6 May 1983, Page 10

Hellaby shapes up

R and W Hellaby is trading profitably, and the directors are looking forward to a much improved result, they say in the halfyearly report. However, the final result for the year will now depend on the availability of cattle during the next three months, normally the most productive period of the year, they say. Total throughput has been better than budget, and the weight of meat handled to date is showing a small increase over last year. Total sales are comparable. The dry weather which affected many parts of the North Island caused some livestock to be killed earlier than usual.

Beef trading has been encouraging in the United States but intense competition at times for livestock in New Zealand has more than fully interpreted the forward sales values. The Shortland works now operating as a beef-only plant has taken longer than originally estimated to reorganise. This has had an adverse effect on the expected result from Shortland to date. The directors, however,

have been pleased with the way in which employees have co-operated in endeavouring to meet the new requirements. The successful .commissioning of the joint venture meat processing plant in Singapore has been frustrated by the decline in economic activity in Singapore. Expected sales targets have not been achieved to date. There has been a pleasing improvement in the United States lamb operation based in Sacramento, California. There was a decline in

the local New Zealand demand for meat and processed products earlier in the year, but recently sales have shown an improvement. The processing works at Northland and Taumarunui have operated well and profitably and the company has benefited in its export trading from the recent devaluation of the New Zealand dollar. Capital expenditure has been at much lower levels than previous years. An unchanged interim dividend of 3.5 c (7 per cent) will be paid on July 1.