Sanford on Steady Course

[PREMIUM] Sanford shareholders attending today’s annual meeting learnt that sales for the first three months of the year were on a par with last year.

Last year only included one month from the Pacifica acquisition (down 5% taking this into account)

“Tuna sales well down on last year some of which relates to the San Nikunau being tied up in Pago Pago and not able to fish until 1 February 2012,” said the CEO Eric Barratt.

Inshore and Deepwater were similar to last year.

A strong start to year by Aquaculture saw sales up by 21% before Pacifica and 43% with Pacifica included.

“The markets in Europe are being impacted by the Eurozone debt crisis. There is a concern about the availability of working capital to fund trade and the constantly changing relativity with exchange rates particularly the Euro US$ cross.

“While the American markets have more stability price pressures are common on most species. China continues to be a growing market for New Zealand seafood.

The company’s performance target is 15% return on assets before tax

“Assumptions we make include

‐ We remain a solely seafood company focussed on long term sustainability of resources and returns to investors

‐ We accept that there will be short term issues that will cause us not to earn 15% pre tax return on investment in some years and in some areas.

‐ Despite that we must ensure acceptable returns are achievable in the medium to long term.

‐ Underperforming assets should be sold.”

SUBSCRIBERS can view the annual meeting presentation by clicking on the file attached below:

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Sanford AGM presentation