Mackay Sugar holds AGM
Mackay Sugar holds AGM
Friday October 31 2014, 9:40am
Mackay Sugar yesterday held its Annual General Meeting for the year ending May 2014, presenting its financial results and discussing the year’s highlights and challenges with over 500 of its 1,000 shareholders.
The financial results included a profit of $5.2 million, a decline on the $16.3 million profit recorded in the 2013 financial year.
Mackay Sugar Chairman Andrew Cappello stated in his opening address that the Company achieved a credible financial performance despite the financial year involving a poor crop and the lowest sugar price the industry had seen in seven years.
“Mackay Sugar handled a crop of 5 million tonnes (Mt) and 587,000 tonnes (t) in Mackay and Mossman respectively in the 2013 season (2012 season: 5.6Mt; 508,867t) and produced more than 747,092t of raw sugar in Mackay and 74,110t in Mossman (2012 season: 824,999t and 63,492t).
“World market sugar prices were low, with an average of $410.70 achieved during the financial year.
“Regardless of the challenges faced in the year, we attained a number of key strategic outcomes, including the completion of a major upgrade at our Mossman Mill in readiness for its return to design capacity in the 2014 season, the creation of our new marketing business Queensland Commodity Services (QCS), and the acquisition of 2.6 million ‘M’ Class Sugar Terminal Limited shares to secure our long term interests in the export facilities.
“Furthermore, revenue from our renewable energy increased significantly with electricity sales rising by $12.7 million on last year’s result, reaching $25.4 million. This was due to the operation of the Racecourse Cogeneration Plant and a sound achievement for the plant’s first full year of operation.
“Our focus for the current financial year is to improve cane rail and milling performance, strengthen our marketing capacity through QCS, support farm productivity and enhance stakeholder relations,” Mr Cappello said.
Mackay Sugar Chief Executive Officer Quinton Hildebrand provided shareholders with an account of the operational performance for the current season and the strategies aimed at improving results for the Company in the years ahead.
The election of directors was also announced at the meeting, with Mackay growers Lee Blackburn and Paul Manning elected to the Mackay Sugar Board.
Mr Blackburn and Mr Manning replace Grower Directors Vince Germanotta and Anthony (Tony) Bartolo who have served on the Mackay Sugar Board for 10 years and four years respectively. The Board comprises five Grower Directors and two Independent Directors.
Mr Cappello thanked Mr Germanotta and Mr Bartolo for their contribution to the Mackay Sugar Board and welcomed Mr Blackburn’s and Mr Manning’s appointment.
“On behalf of the Mackay Sugar Board of Directors and management, I sincerely thank Vince and Tony for their commitment to the growth of Mackay Sugar over the last 14 years, collectively, and I congratulate Lee and Paul on their appointment to the Board.
