Difficult season sees profits fall at Frontier Agriculture
© Tim Scrivener Frontier Agriculture recorded a slight drop in both turnover and pre-tax profit in the year to 30 June 2020.
The company’s 15th full year of trading produced a pre-tax profit of £25.7m on a turnover of £1.613m.
This compares with a £31.5m pre-tax profit in 2019 on a turnover of £1.653m.
Group operating profit in 2020 was £27.97m, down from £34.28m the previous year.
The poor autumn of 2019, low winter plantings and a dry spring with flat cereal values reduced the UK market for crop protection by 30% and lowered demand for crop inputs as growers sought to mitigate their costs of production, said the chairman’s statement to the accounts.
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This was the worst crop inputs market in memory, said the statement, but the company’s diversified activities including a strong grain trading performance, enabled the business to mitigate some of the impact of this on performance.
Grain-related annual gross earning represented 46% of the group’s total gross earnings and the profit after tax of £20.24m represents a 7% return on capital.
During the year the company completed its new seed-processing facility at subsidiary GFP.
Frontier is jointly owned in equal shares by Cargill and ABF Holdings.