Trafco records BD1.74m net profit

Manama : Trafco Group yesterday reported a net profit of BD1.74 million for the financial year ending 31 Dec 2016 against BD1.72m in the previous year. Total sales stands at BD41.21m against BD41.06m in the previous year. 

Announcing the result, Ebrahim Zainal, the Group’s chairman said the board has also resolved to propose a cash dividend at a rate of 17 per cent of the paid up capital to shareholders against 16pc for the previous year.

The last quarter of 2016 recorded total sales of BD10.13m against BD10.28m for the same period of previous year, while the net profit for this year was BD411k against BD290k for last year.

The Group’s subsidiary companies did perform well in general, with the exception of Bahrain Livestock Company in which the Group has a stake of around 36pc. 

Awal Dairy Company owned 51pc by the Group reported an 8pc growth in total sales to BD14.5m against last year BD13.4m. Net profit was BD1.32m against BD0.73m in the previous year with higher GP, thanks to lower cost of raw material and packaging materials coupled with improvement in production and expansion of export market. 

With regards to other subsidiary companies, the results were generally positive though limited. Trafco Logistics Company achieved a net profit of BD126k against BD73k the previous year. Metro Markets Company another wholly owned company that operates retail outlets for the group made a profit of BD53k on total sales of BD2.8m. 

As to Bahrain Water Bottling & Beverages Company which is fully owned by the Group, this year was a turn-around of profitability after many years of negative results. The company had a net profit of BD102k this year against a loss of BD44k in the previous year. The company’s new 200 ml bottles of water under MARWA brand were well received by the consumers and the company has plans for expansion.

On the other hand, Bahrain Fresh Fruits Company, another wholly owned subsidiary booked a loss of BD116k due to reduced sales volume that resulted from discontinuation of one of its agency supplies and delays to replace with new products.

Bahrain Livestock Company in which the Group has a stake of around 36pc had a difficult year after the removal of Government subsidy on meat which was implemented on 1st October 2015. The company had to go into a compete management and operation reshuffling and based on a study performed by an international business Consultants, it was decided that  operation need to be shrinked, the slaughter house closed, and dealing in live animal to be discontinued. The company had to pay substantial compensation for retrenchment of a good number of the staff and start concentrating on import and distribution of chilled and frozen meat from different origins. In addition it intends to operate in added value activities in the meat sector to service the catering and other outlets. Due to all these drastic changes, reduced volume of turnover, and heavy cost of retrenchment the company suffered losses and the share of losses were consolidated in the group financials.

The Group investment portfolio achieved a net income for this year BD895k against BD 663k the previous year, including all trading profits and dividends received from its holdings in other companies.   The 4th quarter of the year registered a net profit of BD273k in the portfolio against a profit of BD144k in the previous year.