Industry - sugar: Südzucker with an optimistic outlook
An employee of the sugar factory Südzucker runs on a mountainside along beet. - High sugar prices and positive developments in the other divisions provide an optimistic outlook for Südzucker. "At the corporate level, we continue to expect higher sales in all segments," said Chief Executive Wolfgang army at the Annual Meeting in Mannheim.
After winning jumps in the last financial year (late February) and in the first quarter of the current (late May) is to increase sales to more than seven billion euros - the operating profit to more than 800 million euros.
As the European market will be covered by the quota system of the EU to 85 percent of domestic production and imports by 15 percent, not the sugar price fluctuations on the world market, subject to such an extent, said a spokesman Südzucker. Nevertheless, let the price hard to predict. In recent months the world market price had fallen sharply at first, before he had in the past few days again significantly.
The sugar beet growers have benefited from a bumper crop and high prices. The price for beets, which were produced within the EU quotas, be increased by 40 percent, said Fred Zeller, CEO of the Association of South German sugar beet growers. Overall, sales had increased by 50 percent. Since the beet growers have 56 percent of Südzucker shares, you now also benefit from the increased dividend. Shareholders were proposed to increase the dividend by 15 cents to 70 per share.
The MDax Südzucker company also produces fruit juice concentrates, functional ingredients for food and frozen pizza. Moreover, the bioethanol producer Cropenergies belongs to the group.
