Poultry
PHW 
"Our strategic focus was and still is on animal welfare as well as sustainability," affirms Peter Wesjohann.
GERMANY, Visbek. The PHW Group, Germany's number one poultry marketer, survived the 2019/20 financial year without any major blows despite disruptive fire from the pandemic. After years of growth, however, sales moved sideways.
Corona also left scratches on PHW Group's business performance. The temporary closure of the turkey slaughterhouse in Geestland and the Wiesenhof slaughterhouse in the district of Straubing-Bogen - both caused by Corona cases in the workforce - slowed down the growth of the market leader for poultry in the 2019/20 financial year. The total sales of the group therefore increased only slightly by 0.64% to € 2.704 bn. (previous year: € 2.687 bn.) in the past financial year (reporting date June 30, 2020), the company announced in response to a question from the "Lebensmittel Zeitung". And further: In all three business areas - poultry, alternative protein sources and health - the family-owned company from Lower Saxony had recorded a positive business development.
Its investments in startups SuperMeat, Gathered Foods, The LiveKindly Company, Enterra Feed Corporation and its partnership with US-based Eat JUST, demonstrate the poultry leader's wide-ranging interests outside its core business. PHW Group even developed its own vegan brand, "Green Legend." The first products have been available in food retail since October 2020.
Money flows into core business
However, the investments of € 91.6 mill. in the reporting year previous year (€ 108.8 mill.) have mainly flowed into German poultry production sites, it says from Rechterfeld. "Our strategic focus was and still is in the areas of animal welfare as well as sustainability," confirms CEO Peter Wesjohann to the LZ.
The balance sheets of the subgroups Erste and Zweite Paul-Heinz Wesjohann GmbH & Co. KG, which have now been published in parallel in the Federal Gazette, paint an even more detailed picture. In the management report of Erste Paul-Heinz Wesjohann GmbH & Co. KG includes 22 domestic and five foreign companies. At € 2.214 bn., the subgroup's sales were only slightly down on the previous year (€ 2.229 bn.). Domestic business accounted for € 1.713 bn. (previous year: € 1.664 bn.), while foreign business contributed € 500.8 mill. (previous year: € 564.3 mill.). At € 448.9 mill. (previous year: € 492.3 mill.), the majority was generated on European markets.
Fierce price competition
The second Paul-Heinz Wesjohann GmbH & Co. KG is more strongly focused on foreign business. Including the parent company, a total of six domestic and 16 foreign subsidiaries are fully consolidated. In addition to the Polish turkey processing company Bomadek, the Groenlandgroup and Ameta subgroups are of economic importance. The Dutch Groenlandgroup focuses on poultry processing. The Bulgarian Ameta Group is involved in the production and marketing of poultry specialties. At € 539 mill., sales were slightly up on the previous year (€ 528 mill.). The foreign share of sales increased from € 406.2 mill. to € 460.4 mill.
The Group expects fierce price competition to continue even more strongly. "With motivated and capable employees, we are pursuing our ambitious goals to expand our market position in Germany and abroad, particularly also in the Refining/Convenience and Alternative Proteins business units." The poultry leader was cautious about its expectations for the fiscal year just ended, forecasting flat sales and sideways-moving operating and financial results.
Source: lebensmittelzeitung.net
