JBS announces profit jump in 2013

Net revenue stood at BRL92.9m ($40.47m) for the year – up 22.7% year-on-year, while Ebitda increased 39% to BRL6.1m ($2.66m).

The meat giant put the increase down to improved sales throughout all company business units, particularly to the Mercosur region in South America, where sales rose 43.3%, from BRL18.01bn ($7.85bn) in 2012 to the current BRL25.82bn ($11.25bn).

In JBS’ US beef operations, revenue increased 6.5% – this included its businesses in Canada, Australia and the USA – while US pork sales were up 0.5%, and chicken (Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation) was up 3.6%.

Wesley Batista, chief executive, JBS Global, said: "The global economic outlook is positive. We believe the US dollar will recover further. We expect the dollar to continue gaining strength, benefiting our exports and boosting the value of our assets.​

"Our exports last year totalled approximately $12bn, up almost 20% on 2012. This $2bn increase in exports is essentially based on two factors."​

The first was an increase in consumption and demand in emerging markets, while the second was the increased number of countries it is exporting to, he said.

Exports to Greater China increased 21.2% from 2012 to 2013, while exports to Mexico increased 14.6% and were up 9.8% to Africa and the Middle East.

Batista added: "JBS has built up a strategic production platform in the world’s most competitive regions. We have a granular distribution base in the largest consumer centres. This leads us to believe that our strategic decisions will continue to drive our results, creating value for our shareholders, development for society and convenience for consumers."​

He predicted that the company’s exports will be around $15bn in 2014 – up from $12bn in 2013, and that the FIFA Football World Cup and the Olympics will support the demand for proteins in Brazil.

Among the company’s highlights for 2013 was the acquisition of Seara, as well as union with JBS Chicken Brazil, forming JBS Foods. The group said the new unit performed strongly in its first quarter of trading, with the acquisition enabling the firm to expand into the higher value-added product segments.