Strauss reports lower sales, higher profit

Food company Strauss Group Ltd. (TASE:STRS) reported this morning that its sales in the first quarter of 2015 fell 2.1% to NIS 1.93 billion. Strauss said that sales were affected by losses on translation of foreign currency to the tune of NIS 67 million, because of the strengthening of the shekel against other currencies in which the group operates.

Operating profit totaled NIS 197 million (10.2% of sales), 3.1% less than in the corresponding quarter of 2014. The operating profit margin fell by 0.1%.

Strauss's net profit grew by 2.4% to NIS 102 million.

Strauss Group president and CEO Gadi Lesin said, "“Thanks to the Group’s international strategy and the robustness of the companies in the various countries of operation, Strauss Group has posted stable results of operations and has even improved the net profit despite dealing with complex economic challenges and political crises. Strauss Coffee’s companies in Russia and Ukraine, which drew considerable attention in prior quarters, are coping successfully and according to plan with the crisis in those countries while other global growth drivers continue to develop. Against the backdrop of increasingly fierce competition between market players, Strauss Israel’s operating profit was down by only NIS 6 million. We are investing considerable efforts in product innovation and continue to apply streamlining measures throughout the length of our value chain, which will contribute to Strauss’s ability to contend with the challenges that the market in Israel will continue to pose this year.”

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 28, 2015

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