Agra posts solid profitThe company increased its revenue on the back of a difficult operating environment. Despite drought challenges 0 On the backdrop of a crippling drought being experienced countrywide, Agra this week said it was pleased to report a commendable profit after tax just north of N$40 million to conclude its financial year. Gross profits for the financial year 2015/16 increased for both the group and the company by roughly 11%, from N$297 million in 2014/15 to N$331 million in 2015/16 for the group, and from N$275 million to N$306 million for the company.
The Agra group maintained a stable net profit after current normal tax, of N$47 million while net profit after tax came in at N$43 million.
Delivering the results, its chief executive officer, Arnold Klein expressed his satisfaction on the back of a difficult operating environment.
“We are proud that Agra''s continued pursuit to optimise efficiency and to utilise synergies to contain operating expenses resulted in the group''s operating costs only increasing by 5.5% from N$253 million in 2014/15 to N$267 million in 2015/16, an inflationary related increase that was much less than the operational growth achieved.”
Agra''s retail and wholesale division comprising all its retail branches, Auas Wholesalers and Auas Vet Med performed well, managing to achieve year-on-year growth of 18%. “This indicates that we have maintained the momentum of growth achieved over the last several years, as can be seen in the graph below. At the same time, gross profit increased from N$146.4 million in 2014/15 to N$174.2 million in 2015/16, representing an increase of 19% year on year,” he said.
Klein added: “The main challenges ahead for the 2016/17 financial year are the effective management of our working capital to allow for the continuous investment in and upgrading of the Agra retail branches, as well as the successful implementation of the new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The completion of the new Agra Karibib branch is anticipated for early 2017, whilst construction of the new Maltahöhe branch is expected to commence early 2017.”
He added that Agra would implement Sage X3 during the course of the 2016/17 financial year.
“This will improve our business processes and controls and also enable us to transact more effectively.”
“Agra has a tough budget for the 2016/17 financial year. As we are largely dependent on the wellbeing of the farming sector to achieve our growth targets, it is imperative that the country receives above average rains thus enabling the agricultural sector to recover from the prolonged drought we are currently experiencing,” Klein concluded.
OGONE TLHAGE