German conglomerate NayWa has revealed that a positive performance in its agricultural division during the first quarter of the year – including an eyecatching increase in its fruit business earnings linked to the recent takeover of New Zealand-based exporter Turners & Growers (T&G) – failed to compensate for a significant reversal in fortunes at its building materials unit during the same three-month period, with a harsher than normal winter in Europe reportedly slowing the construction trade considerably.
While the company did manage to generate revenues of around €3.7bn, compared with €2.2bn in the first quarter of 2012, its earnings before interest and tax up to 31 March 2013 amounted to a loss of €7.4m, down from a profit of €6.7m in the year-earlier period.
Reporting revenues of €119.4m, BayWa's fruit business unit saw its revenues for the quarter more than quadruple year-on-year, while EBIT was up by around €2.4m to €3.9m.
However, the improvement on both counts was attributed mainly to the full-year consolidation of T&G, which was not taken into acount last year as the acquisition was not completed until April 2012. 'The sale of the high-quality fruit harvest in New Zealand promises very good sales income,' the company noted.
BayWa chief executive Klaus Josef Lutz said the group remained confident it would soon see an improvement in areas outside the fruit business. “If the winter in Europe had not lasted so unusually long, we would have generated higher positive EBIT in the first quarter than in the last two years,” he explained. 'The anticipated catch-up effects and business performance in April make us very optimistic that we will be able to increase revenues and earnings year on year in all three segments by the end of 2013.'
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