Fonterra's profit rose 183 percent, but sales fell 15% in fiscal year 2015

The New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra, the world's largest, reported today that its revenue fell 15 percent to 18.8 billion New Zealand dollars in the fiscal year ended in July 31, 2015. Total sales volume in the period, for its part, rose 9% to 4.3 million tons.
According to statement released by the cooperative, the net profit after taxes of Fonterra rose 183 percent, to 506 million New Zealanders and the normalized Ebit increased by 94%, to 974 million New Zealanders. The Fonterra reported that it obtained the results after stronger performance in the second half of the fiscal year in a "market in difficult conditions".
The cooperative will pay the associated 10,500 a final value of 4.65 dollars New Zealanders in the 2015 season, comprising a price of 4.40 per kg of solids (kgMS) delivered and a dividend of 25 cents of New Zealand dollar per share. The final value is 45% lower than that of the same period a year earlier.
The chairman of Fonterra John Wilson said in a statement that market conditions "extremely challenging" affected all areas of the cooperative's business. "The global dairy prices fall due to the imbalance between supply and demand impacted the price of milk, while the dividend reflected higher costs of financing after significant investments in capacity (...) and strategic investments in the Chinese market, "he said.
Even as chairman, there was improved performance in the second half of the fiscal year, resulting in an increase in earnings. This was possible thanks to the growth in business to the final consumer and in food service and to advance in the business of ingredients, which compensated for the low price of milk with better margins.
As the balance of Fonterra, the cost of interest on financing rose 95 million New Zealanders, to 427 million, which had an impact of about 6 cents of dollar per share.