{"id":279981,"date":"2026-02-12T06:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T06:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279981\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T06:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T06:13:08","slug":"skellerup-profit-jumps-despite-us-tariffs-guidance-and-dividend-increased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279981\/","title":{"rendered":"Skellerup profit jumps despite US tariffs, guidance and dividend increased"},"content":{"rendered":"Skellerup\u2019s US-bound products are made in three locations, New Zealand, China and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
Most of the New Zealand-made product is in dairy consumables and falls under a long-established tariff exemption.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more difficult ones for us to overcome are the tariffs imposed on Vietnam and China and we\u2019ve made pretty significant inroads in overcoming those with a combination of working on our costs, and being able to pass on price increases to our customers,\u201d Leaming said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously there was a lot of volatility around tariffs about eight or nine months ago, but when that settled down and the daily escalation stopped, we settled around where it is now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Before Trump\u2019s inauguration in January 2025, Skellerup had increased its inventory holdings into the US, which provided the company with time.<\/p>\n
Skellerup had estimated the tariff impact at $5m for the current financial year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve halved the impact on ourselves already and we think we can continue to reduce that in the years ahead, assuming things stay as they are,\u201d Leaming said.<\/p>\n
In its result, revenue in the half-year to December 31 was $183.5m, up 11%.<\/p>\n
Earnings before interest and tax (ebit) came in at $40.6m, up 16% on the previous comparable period, and also a record.<\/p>\n
Net debt was $17.5m, a $2.9m reduction on the previous half-year.<\/p>\n
Leaming said the company had made an \u201cexcellent\u201d start to the 2026 financial year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe growth in revenue and earnings was broad-based with the most notable contributions coming from the key dairy, potable and wastewater applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team across the world has done an excellent job in meeting increased demand, delivering capacity improvements and navigating the impact of fluctuating tariff rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
The industrial division\u2019s ebit of $25.1m was up 12% on the previous corresponding period.<\/p>\n
The division\u2019s revenue was up 6%, mainly because of growth in sales into potable and wastewater applications, most notably in the United States but also in Australia.<\/p>\n
Sales to the roofing and construction sector in Australia and the United Kingdom were up, and sales to marine foam applications in the US continued to improve.<\/p>\n
Skellerup\u2019s agri division\u2019s ebit was $18.5 million, up 20%.<\/p>\n
Agri\u2019s revenue was up 21%, primarily because of increased market share for dairy rubberware consumables, principally in global markets.<\/p>\n
Revenue was also boosted by a change in customer delivery terms. Adjusting to exclude this, revenue increased by 18%.<\/p>\n
Footwear sales to domestic and international markets were also up.<\/p>\n
The most notable impact came from increasing sales and market share for specialist footwear in the US utilities sector.<\/p>\n
Inventory levels are being maintained above historical levels to mitigate the risks of supply-chain interruptions and changes in tariffs.<\/p>\n
Leaming said global geopolitical uncertainty persisted, which continued to make forecasting future results difficult.<\/p>\n
Global markets represented 82% of revenue in the first half.<\/p>\n
Skellerup declared an interim dividend of 10.0 cents per share (an increase of 1.0cps), imputed at 40%.<\/p>\n
In the 2025 financial year, Skellerup reported a net profit after tax of $54.5m \u2013 also a record \u2013 up 9% on the previous year.<\/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":"Skellerup\u2019s US-bound products are made in three locations, New Zealand, China and Vietnam. Most of the New Zealand-made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[156940,95,138,127,36354,4568,3214,15218,5616,15215,36996,156941,4493,17090,19476,1132,111,139,69,5340,1974,72082,57909,7677,55837,3040],"class_list":["post-279981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-156940","tag-and","tag-business","tag-despite","tag-dividend","tag-earnings","tag-exports","tag-firsthalf","tag-forecast","tag-fullyear","tag-guidance","tag-imposition","tag-increased","tag-jumps","tag-lifted","tag-million","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-profit","tag-record","tag-skellerup","tag-slightly","tag-tariffs","tag-upgraded","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279981","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=279981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}