Together, Force and Itambé should earn r $ 4 billion

The combined revenue of the Force food and mining Itambé s.a will reach $ 4 billion, said yesterday the Chief Executive Officer of the Force, Gilberto Xandó. Last February, the dairy company controlled by J&F (holding that controls also the JBS), acquired 50% of the share capital of Itambé for $ 410 million.
The operation, which has yet to be approved by the Administrative Council for economic Defense (Cade), will enable the Force to advance in markets such as Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and the Northeast, where the Itambé has strong performance, according to Xandó. "Force and Itambé are complementary," he said during a teleconference for presentation of results of the company.
To finance the purchase of the stake in Itambé, the Force will use credit lines available in Brazilian banks and will not resort to BNDES loans, according to the company's Chief Financial Officer, Maurice Hasson.
In addition to the strategy of becoming a national company-process that can be accelerated after operation with the Itambé-, the Force has reinforced the focus on higher value-added products. This has encouraged some financial indicators of the company last year. Net revenue in 2012 was r $ 1382 billion, 8.2% more than in 2011. The Force also managed to reverse the damage of 2011 and profited $ 30,6 million last year.
Xandó highlighted the growth in the gross profit and gross margin of the company in 2012. The first indicator reached r $ 394,6 million in the year, up 26.5 percent, and gross margin was 29.7%, 4.3 percentage points above registered in 2011.
In fact, increased the participation of the most valuable items in the recipe from the Force last year. Sales of dairy category (yogurt, fermented milk, curd and cheese) rose 12.4% on year to r $ 749,4 million. This means a slice of 56% of net revenues. In 2011, the share was 54%.
Already sales of long-life milk, a product considered commodity, totaled r $ 98.6 million last year, 23.6% below of 2011. As a result, the share of the product on the net revenue was 7% versus 10% in 2011.
According to Chief Financial Officer Maurice Hasson, this percentage is considered appropriate by the company. Xandó added that with the acquisition of stake in Itambé slice of long-life milk in the combined revenue of the two must be of 10%.
Although he managed to reverse the loss in the year, the net result of the Force in the fourth quarter of 2012 was 60% less than the same period in 2011. The company earned $ 6.6 million. According to Hasson, the result is due to the "non-Ebitda came to the satisfaction". In this case, the result was r $ 14.8 million, 20% below the fourth quarter of 2011. Xandó stated that investments in marketing to product launches and the creation of new areas in the company generated higher costs, with an impact on the result.
He also said that the Ebitda margin of Force still "is far from objective". But assessed that investments and changes implemented last year will enable the company to get better margins as early as 2013. In the fourth quarter of 2012, the Ebtida margin of Force was 4.2%, 1.6 percentage points below the same period in 2011. In the year was 5.1%, 1.5 percentage point over 2011.