Seeka cuts annual profit forecast
Fire puts dampner on Seeka's expected profit.
The country's biggest kiwifruit grower, Seeka Kiwifruit Industries [NZX: SEK], cut its full-year profit forecast as it lost more fruit than expected late in the season due to a lack of storage.
The Te Puke-based company expects profit in calendar 2015 to increase between 10% and 40% from $3.2 million in 2014. The forecast includes expected insurance payments from a fire at its Oakside, Tauranga, post-harvest site in March.
That's lower than the company's August forecast for an annual profit gain of between 30% and 40%, which excluded one-time items such as insurance payments.
Seeka says the fire at its Oakside site had unexpectedly impacted fruit storage, and fruit spoilage losses are higher thsn previously forecast.
The company says it is in talks with its insurers over a separate claim to the cover costs and losses associated with increased fruit loss, and the lower end of its forecast profit range reflects the losses being uninsured.
It expects to update shareholders further at a meeting next Wednesday.
Shares in Seeka fell 1.5% to $3.35. The stock has gained 5.3% so far this year.
(BusinessDesk)
Tina Morrison
Wed, 14 Oct 2015
Wed, 14 Oct 2015
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Seeka cuts annual profit forecast
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