DLG delivers a sound result

DLG delivered a revenue close to EUR 6.6 billion, which is on level with last year and delivered an operating profit (EBITDA) of more than EUR 200 million and EBT was EUR 75 million. DLG Group CEO, Kristian Hundebøll, says:  

“In all the main markets, we were affected by a warm and prolonged dry period, which yielded a historically small harvest. This has had a negative impact of 17% on our operating profit within our Agribusiness division compared to 2017. It is therefore positive that our result was not as negatively impacted as it looked during and just after the harvest. This is because the DLG Group stands strong on three strategic legs. Thus, Premix & Nutrition and Energy & Service have delivered the best results so far, with a total increase in earnings of 19% compared to last year.” 

The German market contributes significantly

DLG’s German subsidiaries also contributed with highly satisfactory results in 2018. The revenue was EUR 4.2 billion, which is EUR 200 million higher than 2017. The operating profit (EBITDA) landed at EUR 108 million which is on par with the DLG Groups best result in 2017. Kristian Hundebøll says: 

“Of course, we are very pleased that our largest market, Germany, continues to deliver such great results. Germany is a very important strategic market for us, and we continue to have high ambitions considering increased earnings and growth in the future years within all our three main business areas.” 

Tight cost control

“Although the profit for the year does not fully meet the expectations and goals we had set for the year, the financial results for the year looks promising for the future. This is emphasised by our best-ever interim accounts. Combined with concerted investment restraint and tight cost control, especially in the second half-year, the Group was further consolidated in 2018. We therefore describe our result in 2018 as very satisfactory,” says Kristian Hundebøll. 

 A difficult year for many farmers 

“It is very promising that we at DLG have made it through the year reasonably well, but for many farmers this has been an extremely difficult year due to difficult production conditions. As a farmer-owned company, our most important task is to create value for our customers by optimising their production economy in the future through competitive prices, quality and consulting. It is therefore also encouraging that we can report a significant profit to our shareholders in a challenging year,” says Kristian Hundebøll.

Outlook for 2019 

“We will still see a minor negative effect of harvest 2018 in the first half of 2019, especially on the German market. However, with a combination of ongoing cost adjustments and continued increase in earnings within many of our business areas throughout the Group, we expect a level of profit in 2019 at the same level as the record year 2017,” says Kristian Hundebøll.  

“We have a rock-solid business with a healthy portfolio of activities on which to build the future of DLG. We are therefore also maintaining our ambitious objectives in our strategy to increase our earnings by 50% in 2021 compared to 2016,” says Kristian Hundebøll.