By NZPA
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Friday 8th November 2002 |
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Richmond said it would be adding no dividend to its interim 5 cents per share.
However, the company said it remained committed to the current dividend policy of moving to distributing 30-40 percent of normalised annual earnings.
Chairman Sam Robinson said no single factor was responsible for the loss, which included $3.6 million in one-off costs.
Some of those costs were related to a long-running court case Richmond is fighting with Dunedin meat company and shareholder PPCS.
Richmond's total revenues dropped 8 percent on the previous year to $1.31 billion as a result of a decline in throughput and the appreciation of the New Zealand dollar.
Mr Robinson said that by any standards the company's performance had been disappointing, but he was confident the business could return "rapidly" to profitability.
"Basically our performances across a number of areas were below par, and we also had a number of one-off costs. The most significant of these were costs associated with the shareholder litigation which totalled $1.3 million."
Mr Robinson said that in spite of the loss, there had been a marked improvement in the company's operating cash flow position, with a net cashflow surplus of $62.1 million.
This had improved shareholders equity to total assets to 39.5 percent.
Richmond blamed the loss on three specific areas: lower volumes of stock, significant falls in some markets and poor performances in a number of smaller businesses.
Processed livestock fell short of the company's forecasts, as it did with other companies including PPCS, which yesterday reported a 77 percent drop in profit at $8.4 million.
The company also got caught out by a collapse in venison prices in the main market, Germany.
Although it accounted for less than 3 percent of total sales volumes, venison had to be purchased in advance because of the time-lag between processing and selling seasons, Mr Robinson said.
Richmond Leathers also suffered from a sharp fall in finished hide prices following September 11, which hit the luxury goods markets hard.
But none of the problems were thought to be recurring and the company was expecting better conditions next year.
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