Record profit for Fletcher's BCFP

Press, 28 January 1988, Page 26

Record profit for Fletcher's BCFP

British Columbia Forest Products, Ltd, the Canadian subsidiary of Fletcher Challenge, Ltd, has announced record profits and sales for both the December quarter and the 1987 calendar year. The record earnings for the December quarter at 5NZ47.6 million were ahead of the total earned during the whole of the 1986 year. Earnings for the full 1987 year more than trebled over 1986 to SNZI64 million on sales of $1.6 billion compared with the 1986 year’s earnings of SNZ47 million on sales of $1.3 billion, when product markets were weaker and the industry’ was strike-affected. Mr Hugh Fletcher, chief executive officer of Fletcher Challenge, said

BCFP’s previous record earnings were SNZII3.I million established in 1979. “The result underlines the importance of the group’s international expansion — with the excellent profits being well in excess of those being forecast when we first bought into BCFP in February last year. Obviously we are delighted with the strength of its performance,” Mr Fletcher said. BCFP’s chief executive officer, Mr lan Donald, said excellent demand for pulp and paper (both newsprint and lightweight coated papers) and improved conditions for wood products in offshore markets, combined with higher sales prices, permitted operations to run

at full capacity throughout the fourth quarter and produce the record results. “These results could not come at a better time for BCFP since we are embarking on the most ambitious capital reinvestment programme in the history of the company,” Mr Donald said. “The company is already under way with projects worth more than SNZB2O million and there are a number of others we are studying, to retain BCFP’s competitive edge in the face of stiff international competition,” he said. The outlook for the company remains positive, Mr Donald concluded.