SunRice update

The SunRice Group released its FY2020 Full Year Financial Results on Thursday 25 June.

The key highlights were as follows:

  • Despite challenging conditions, profitability maintained, guidance confirmed and a fully-franked dividend of 33 cents per B Class Share declared, highlighting strength of the SunRice Group’s balance sheet and business model
  • Consolidated revenue for the Group of $1.13 billion, down 5% year-on-year
  • Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) of $22.7 million, down 31% year-on-year
  • Significant progress against the 2022 Growth Strategy in FY2020 despite challenging context, including drought-affected Riverina crop of 2019 (CY19) of 54,000 paddy tonnes (down 91% from 6230,000 paddy tonnes the prior year)
  • Harvesting for the CY20 Riverina rice crop now concluded – at approximately 45,000 paddy tonnes it is the new second-smallest crop on record.

 

Commenting on the FY2020 Full Year Financial Results, SunRice CEO Rob Gordon said:

“In what was an extraordinary year, these are strong results,” he said.

“Not only did we have the second-smallest Australian rice crop on record, we also faced deteriorating economic conditions in some of our international markets, the impact of successive natural disasters and, in the final two months of FY2020, COVID-19.

“The fact we have been able to maintain profitability against such challenging headwinds and declare a fully franked dividend in line with guidance highlights the ongoing strength of our business model and balance sheet.”

The Financial Results were driven by a combination of several factors that included:

  • Ongoing drought conditions in the Riverina, leading to the second-smallest crop on record of 54,000 tonnes in CY19*, down 91% on the CY18 crop of 623,000 tonnes
  • Deteriorating conditions in key global markets, particularly across the Pacific
  • Flexing of our international sourcing capability to offset the lower Australian crop and ensure the Group met continued growing global demand for SunRice’s products
  • Continued execution of the 2022 Growth Strategy, delivering significant value during FY2020 with new global supply chains, innovative product offerings across multiple segments and expanded production capabilities
  • Response to COVID-19 in the last two months of FY2020 has demonstrated the resilience and agility that exists across our portfolio of businesses, and highlighted the strength of the Group’s existing risk management and mitigating strategies
  • Despite restructure of SunRice’s Riverina operations in line with lower production levels in FY2020, the Rice Pool was unable to absorb all overheads and recorded a loss, impacting overall Group profitability.

SunRice’s results will be presented at the Ricegrowers Limited Annual General Meeting, to be held at 10.30am on Friday 28 August 2020 at the Jerilderie Civic Hall, Jerilderie, and virtually. Further details on the arrangements for the AGM will be sent to shareholders in July.

SunRice also released its 2020 Annual Report, which can be found on the SunRice website: www.sunrice.com.au/annual-reports.