Coillte, Ireland’s leading natural resources company, recently announced its annual results for 2013. Coillte delivered a profit after tax of €25.8m, an increase of 69% on 2012 with turnover of €275m, up from €262m in 2012.
Coillte 2013 results include following highlights:
- Group turnover increased by €13.6m (5%) during 2013 to €275.7m.
- Operating profit before exceptional items was €41.3m in 2013 up from €35m in 2012. The increased contribution reflects increased sales volume and panel board prices.
- Profit after tax increased to €25.8m up from €15.3m in 2012. These results include an exceptional charge of €0.9m compared with an equivalent charge of €6.0m in the previous year.
- Paid dividend of €2m to shareholders, January 2014.
The Group continued its capital expenditure programme in 2013 investing €41.2m, of which over 80% was spent enhancing and maintaining the forest estate.
In overall terms, the volume of logs sold to Irish sawmills increased 3% year on year while sales of panel products increased by 5%. The increased demand for logs reflected increased demand for sawn timber in the UK market whereas the increase in demand for panel products occurred mainly in Ireland and continental Europe.
Export sales accounted for 59% of Group turnover and 64% of this figure was sold into the UK market.
Acting Chief Executive Mr. Gerry Britchfield said: “Coillte delivered a strong financial performance in 2013, and I am pleased to report that we delivered an operating profit of €41.3m. 2013 proved to be a year of two halves for us - the first half of the year was extremely challenging with the UK market exiting slowly from recession, however there was a significant improvement in the second half of the year. We are forecasting a significantly improved trading environment across all business areas for 2014 and our ambition is to continue to deliver a strong profit performance for our shareholders. We have seen a good first half of the year to date and are looking forward to delivering on our targets for the full year.”
He also reiterated Coillte’s support for the Government decision, announced on Tuesday 24th June, to proceed with the establishment of a Joint Venture between Coillte and Bord na Mona focused on specific areas of overlap between the respective companies in wind energy, biomass supply, shared services and green tourism.
“Over the past two years Coillte has worked constructively with Government to determine how best to capture the significant future opportunities for growth available to the company and optimise its performance and contribution to the State and we believe that the Government decision this week represents a practical approach to delivering additional value for the State as shareholder,” he said.
In 2013 Coillte continued to expand in the renewable energy sector, securing planning consent for a 33 MW wind farm in Cork and significantly advancing three other wind farm projects with a combined capacity of 200MW.
