2012 was a record year for Nutreco. Knut Nesse, CEO Nutreco, said the strongest operational results in the group\'s growth segments were its Skretting aquafeed division and Premix & Feed Specialties. Fish Feed revenue rose to €1,893.1 million in 2012, up 18.2 per cent from €1,601.5 million in 2011. EBITA in Fish Feed was 19.6% higher at €142.0 million compared with €118.7 million in 2011. The increased operating result in 2012 is mostly due to strong demand for salmon feed in Norway and Chile as well as a good performance in aquafeed for other species.
Overall revenue from Nutreco’s continuing operations amounted to €5,229.1 million, an increase of 10.8% compared with 2011 (€4,721.1 million). EBITA before exceptional items from continuing operations increased by 13.2% to €262.1 million (2011: €231.6 million). The exceptional items have substantially declined to -€12.6 million (2011: -€22.9 million). The largest part of the exceptional items was related to restructuring costs in the Netherlands, Belgium and Hungary.
\"We made significant progress in the first year of our strategy \'Ambition 2016 - driving sustainable growth\'\", Nesse said. \"In Fish Feed, we reached agreement to acquire 75% of the leading shrimp and tilapia feed producer in Ecuador, which takes us into a global top-3 position in shrimp feed. This acquisition fully supports our strategy to expand our fish feed business in growth geographies and non-salmonid species whilst maintaining our global leading position in salmon feed. Innovation remains central to our strategy and we have gradually increased our annual R&D budget to €25 million to support the growing need for more sustainable high added value nutritional solutions\".
In October, Nutreco also reached an agreement to acquire 75% of Gisis in Ecuador, the local market leader in fish feed production for shrimp and tilapia, with strong positions in Honduras and Peru. Nutreco also continued to strengthen its market position in China since acquiring the Shihai fish and shrimp feed company in late 2011.
Research is central to the Nutreco strategy, and important steps were taken in 2012 to strengthen capabilities and to implement the science strategy, with a number of new PhDs joining the research teams. The company launched a new shrimp feed research unit in China and extended the
capabilities of rapid near-infrared reflectance (NIR) analysis to guarantee more consistent and higher quality shrimp feed. With the new Application and Solution Centres (ASCs) up and running in the Netherlands and Canada, Nesse said Nutreco is now better positioned to improve product performance in line with market needs, to share its knowledge and networks more effectively and embed a consistent division-wide approach to the marketing of Animal Nutrition products.
Nutreco is applying its knowledge to further broaden its focus beyond salmon, and benefit from opportunities in areas such as shrimp feed and feed for high value white fish in Asia. Skretting\'s MicroBalance feed concept, was successfully applied to other fish species in 2012, including turbot and yellowtail. Looking ahead, researchers are working to increase its benefits by applying the concept to shrimp feed.
Nutreco\'s strategy as expressed in \'Ambition 2016 - driving sustainable growth\' is to grow and improve profitability by providing innovative and sustainable nutritional solutions for its customers and is expected to result in an EBITA of €400 million by 2016. This will be realised by focusing on a higher added value portfolio of nutritional solutions such as Premix & Feed Specialties and Fish Feed, and by expanding into the growth regions of Latin America, Russia, China and Southeast Asia, which will see the largest increases in both production and consumption of animal protein food products.
