Salada Foods Limited

Rising fuel and other raw material costs, in addition to higher selling and administrative expenses resulted in Salada Foods Limited reporting a 25.1% decline in net profit for the first quarter. Net profit moved from $21.5Mn to $16Mn in the period under review. Higher expenses eroded the 7% gain in revenues which came on the back of an increase in the volume of coffee produced for domestic consumption. Given the expected modest growth in revenues, the company could continue to face challenges to increase profitability given rising costs of important inputs as well as the increase in the cess charges by the coffee industry board.