Strauss Group Ltd. (TASE:STRS) published its second quarter results today, showing significant improvement in the main parameters. The company announced that its second quarter net profit was up 149%, compared with the corresponding quarter last year, reaching NIS 78 million. Gross profit rose 6.5%, compared with the corresponding quarter in 2015, reaching NIS 733 million.
The food manufacturer reported NIS 1.9 billion in sales, compared with NIS 1.8 billion in the second quarter of last year, a 5.2% rise. Strauss said that the continued strengthening of the shekel against other active currencies had a negative impact on the company's reports. Negative foreign currency differentials totaled NIS 87 million.
Strauss's coffee business, which accounts for more than a third of its business turnover, also improved. Coffee sales were up 11.5% and overseas coffee sales 3.8%, compared with the corresponding period last year, reaching NIS 153 million and NIS 724 million, respectively. The increase in overseas coffee sales was a result of higher coffee prices in Brazil, Strauss's leading coffee market. Operating profit on coffee business soared 67% to NIS 83 million, compared with the second quarter of 2015.
Strauss also reported 5.2% growth in the second quarter, with a gain in market share, despite a drop in the food and beverages market reported by StoreNext.
Commenting on his company's results,Strauss president and CEO Gadi Lesin said, "The group’s strong results across all business segments and all major countries of operations reflect the implementation of our global strategy, while successfully dealing with the challenges of the past year. This improvement was achieved thanks to the hard work of our managers and employees in all relevant markets. In Israel, our home base, we were able to reduce prices, improve our employee’s conditions as part of our social program and we also gained market share. All this enabled us to grow, despite the market trend. We believe that our performance so far in 2016 is an expression of Strauss’s ongoing robustness and resilience."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 18, 2016
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