Written by John Swire
The British farmer-owned grain marketing and arable inputs co-operative has reported profits of £0.4m for the year to 30 June 2020 (2019: Profit £0.5m), in line with expectations. Openfield not only performed well for its members but also positioned itself confidently to face into the challenging 2020 harvest. As a result, the profit was impacted by the restructure of its operations and investment in new logistics software and systems that will reduce future costs and further improve member service. This reporting demonstrates a third consecutive year of profitability.
The 2019 harvest produced a larger wheat crop than in recent years which created export potential, whilst the good quality crop reduced imports to a minimum. The barley crop saw the highest export volumes for four years with Openfield actively exporting Panamax vessels to Saudi Arabia. The 2019 crop year also saw the continuing reduction of the Oil Seed Rape crop resulting in the largest imports on record. Total exported volumes for 2019 crop reached a four year high at 912,000 tonnes.
Commenting on this performance, Openfield’s chairman Philip Moody said: “I’m very pleased to see Openfield continuing to deliver sustained profitability. We have proactively restructured our operations to prepare for a small crop year in 2020. We have also invested to improve our logistics capability which will further improve our member service. This means that we are able to look forward with confidence as harvest volumes for 2021 are expected to increase. Against this background we delivered excellent results in our grain marketing pools which, coupled with managed risk, continued to demonstrate the value of these marketing options.”
Openfield continues to be the only farmer owned co-operative that has the scale to access all the major UK and global markets. Its strategy is to support British agriculture by working with their members to supply some of the best-known British food and drink brands, aligned to excellent service through an integrated and innovative supply chain.
Openfield performance to June 2020:
- Profit before tax of £0.4m compared with £0.5m in 2019;
- Group revenue up 1% to £638m;
- Net assets (exc. pension fund) increased by 5.5% to £27m (2019: £25.6m);
- Operating costs increased by 2.9% to £15.5million (2019 £15.1 million);
- Total exported volumes were 912k tonnes, a four year high.Openfield
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