{"id":140204,"date":"2025-11-17T22:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/140204\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T22:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:58:08","slug":"sanford-profit-surges-224-as-debt-falls-and-aquaculture-lifts-earnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/140204\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanford profit surges 224% as debt falls and aquaculture lifts earnings"},"content":{"rendered":"Sanford\u2019s aquaculture businesses \u2013 salmon and mussels \u2013 exceeded expectations.<\/p>\n
However, the wildcatch business had fallen short of last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have carried out an initial high-level review of our aquaculture businesses with a clearer understanding of what is needed to build a platform for growth,\u201d Mair said.<\/p>\n
Wildcatch includes Sanford\u2019s inshore business, its deepwater fleet and factory in Timaru, and its fishing partners.<\/p>\n
Sanford had been separating out each value stream to understand its profitability and capital requirements.<\/p>\n
Wildcatch would be the focus for 2026.<\/p>\n
Revenue from Sanford\u2019s salmon business was $127.5m (2024 $107.0m) making a profit contribution of $50.4m (2024 $40.9m).<\/p>\n
In mussels, revenue was $125.5m (2024 $134.1m) and its profit contribution was $34.8m (2024 $13.9m).<\/p>\n
The wildcatch business delivered a 5.9% reduction in profitability to $52.4m from flat revenue.<\/p>\n
Sanford said there had been reduced pricing on scampi, a key species for the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cScampi is a high-value product and the softening price, along with demand, reflects restrained discretionary spend in a subdued Chinese economy,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n
Sanford\u2019s improved operational cashflow had enabled careful and focused capital investment and a significant amount of debt reduction.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy intention is to position the company with a solid platform that will enable us to grow and to take advantage of investment opportunities as and when they arise,\u201d Mair said.<\/p>\n
Cautious dividend payments played a role in Sanford\u2019s debt reduction goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith stable profitability and steady growth, we can expect dividend growth in future years,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n
In its outlook, Sanford said it had become concentrated in several large traditional markets, particularly China and the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina is, and will continue to be, a key market for our company,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US will remain more challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must create a broader market scope for our products then develop, maintain and enhance our interactions with key customers in those markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanford declared a final dividend of 5.0 cents per share, unchanged, taking the full-year dividend to 10.0c per share.<\/p>\n
Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets, the primary sector and energy. He joined the Herald in 2011.<\/p>\n
Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sanford\u2019s aquaculture businesses \u2013 salmon and mussels \u2013 exceeded expectations. However, the wildcatch business had fallen short of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[95245,95242,95246,95,93034,806,9442,138,95243,1656,5399,4480,4568,15248,9832,25619,2513,1132,111,139,69,5340,26352,95244,5513,8037,21938,379],"class_list":["post-140204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-95245","tag-95242","tag-95246","tag-and","tag-aquaculture","tag-as","tag-better","tag-business","tag-cashflow","tag-company","tag-debt","tag-drive","tag-earnings","tag-falls","tag-helped","tag-lifts","tag-lower","tag-million","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-profit","tag-sanford","tag-sanfords","tag-seafood","tag-september","tag-surges","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}