Prosper De Mulder confident on improvement after losses deepen
YORKSHIRE-BASED animal processing business Prosper De Mulder (PDM) is looking to new markets to drive progress after seeing losses increase to £14.8m because of increasing raw materials costs.
The Doncaster group is involved in the collection and processing of animal by-products for pet foods,production of animal and vegetable fats for cooking and de-boned meet ingredients for savoury foods and soups as well as the sale of frozen fish and meat to fast food chains.
The business, which was founded in 1926 and was privately owned until September 2011 when German food chain recycling group SARIA Bio-Industries International took a 51% stake, saw losses increase to £14.8m in the year to March 31, 2012 from £9.5m the previous year.
Turnover was up to £222m from £198m during the year with raw materials costs increasing to £146m from £118m in the same period.
PDM, which employs 1,000 people at 23 sites across the UK, said that a fall in group margin had been caused by a combination of “downward pressure on service charges and upward pressure on raw material purchase values”.
The company’s directors said they were confident that the long-term strategy of increased investment in renewable energy generation through anaerobic digestion, the recyling of food waste diverted from landfill and added value products will reduce its exposure to short-term market fluctuations in the future.
PDM opened its first ReFood anaerobic digestion plant in Doncaster in September 2011 which it said is performing well with plans to build two more in London and the North West.
