Leading farmers' co-op hit by loss in tight market for meat goods

ANM Group declared a loss of 311,000 for the year ending December 2009. Within the final figures was a loss of 1.34million for its meat cutting and processing factories.

Chief executive Alan Craig, who assumed the post last May, promised significant restructuring of both its Scotch Premier Meat and Yorkshire Premier Meat plants to improve competitiveness and boost returns.

Part of the plan will see a new management training programme that will involve senior staff and supervisors travelling to the world-renowned Danish Meat Trade College at Roskilde in Denmark. Six employees are heading there next month.

Earlier this year, ANM announced the closure of its lamb abattoir in Dornoch and its Highland Country Foods operation in Forres, with the loss of 47 jobs.

However, the latest changes should create 20 posts in Inverurie if Craig achieves his aim of processing 300 more cattle a week at Scotch Premier Meat, which lost 882,000 in 2009. Yorkshire Premier lost 200,000 while Charcuterie Continental ended the year 233,000 down.

Craig said the losses in the processing sector were symptomatic of difficult trading conditions that saw cattle prices soar while the end price was difficult to move upward.

Confirming this inequality in the food chain last year, the Marts Division of ANM saw an increased profit of 888,000 compared with 810,000 last year. Turnover in the marts was also up to 118.5m from 101.2m in 2008.

The company had also been caught out by Yorkshire Premier, which makes ready-made meals, with some long term contracts badly out of line when the price of the raw material rose. Craig said new deals were now in place and results from the opening months of this year showed throughput up and costs down by 11 per cent.

Despite the negative outcome from last year, Craig said he was now more positive about the business than ever before. He said: "I see more tangible things happening. We've identified excess capacity and tackled it. We're starting to see the benefits of the action we have taken and we will be cultivating this over the course of the year. I'd like to think that this time next year we won't be looking at figures like these again."

Group throughput increased from 206m to 232m, mainly due to the increased value of livestock. Turnover, which only includes the commission and not the value of the livestock, increased from 99m to 108m.