Banana supplier SH Pratt is celebrating a return to profitability just 12 months after posting pre-tax losses of £6.2m.
Smarter dealings on the currency markets helped turn the 2008 deficit into pre-tax profits of £1.2m in the year to 31 October 2009, according to the company. Turnover also increased from £86.8m to £91m over the same period, accounts recently filed at Companies House show.
"We had a very rough year in 2008 because of the dramatic drop in exchange rates," MD Robert Wells told The Grocer. "We did get support from our customers but the amount of our business in foreign currency exposed us."
Pratt which deals predominantly in dollars as it imports about 200,000 tonnes of bananas from Ecuador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic each year has since started hedging currency to limit future risk.
"We had all been lulled into a false sense of security," Wells admitted. "We are not currency traders but we are having to learn quickly because currencies are going to stay fairly volatile by the look of things."
Wells would not be drawn on what effect the ongoing 'banana wars' between the multiples had had on the business.
He insisted that retailers had been supportive as importers struggled to cope with wild currency fluctuations that had damaged long-term planning.
However, Wells warned that businesses such as his would have to get leaner and more efficient in future, though not through redundancies.
"We will also have to look at stripping costs out of our business through greater efficiency in production procedures," he said, "but I do not believe there will be job losses."
Pratt, which supplies bananas to Tesco, Costco, Netto and Iceland, is one of the UK's biggest suppliers of bananas to the multiples. However it still lags massively behind Fyffes, which in April posted a 33.3% uplift in adjusted pre-tax profits for 2009, from £15.9m to £21.2m, as turnover climbed to £726.8m.
Smarter dealings on the currency markets helped turn the 2008 deficit into pre-tax profits of £1.2m in the year to 31 October 2009, according to the company. Turnover also increased from £86.8m to £91m over the same period, accounts recently filed at Companies House show.
"We had a very rough year in 2008 because of the dramatic drop in exchange rates," MD Robert Wells told The Grocer. "We did get support from our customers but the amount of our business in foreign currency exposed us."
Pratt which deals predominantly in dollars as it imports about 200,000 tonnes of bananas from Ecuador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic each year has since started hedging currency to limit future risk.
"We had all been lulled into a false sense of security," Wells admitted. "We are not currency traders but we are having to learn quickly because currencies are going to stay fairly volatile by the look of things."
Wells would not be drawn on what effect the ongoing 'banana wars' between the multiples had had on the business.
He insisted that retailers had been supportive as importers struggled to cope with wild currency fluctuations that had damaged long-term planning.
However, Wells warned that businesses such as his would have to get leaner and more efficient in future, though not through redundancies.
"We will also have to look at stripping costs out of our business through greater efficiency in production procedures," he said, "but I do not believe there will be job losses."
Pratt, which supplies bananas to Tesco, Costco, Netto and Iceland, is one of the UK's biggest suppliers of bananas to the multiples. However it still lags massively behind Fyffes, which in April posted a 33.3% uplift in adjusted pre-tax profits for 2009, from £15.9m to £21.2m, as turnover climbed to £726.8m.
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