Atria Plc - weak outlook for years to come?

Please look at this short interview in English, Juha Gröhn, CEO Atria Group speaking.  Indeed, he’s not an optimist by nature. Despite the gloomy CEO, the Group has tried to brighten the internal corporate image by implementing a glamorous Atria Way of Work campaign. On their pages (in Finnish) the campaign designer says and apparently Mika Ala-Fossi, EVP Atria Finland confirms that the campaign has been a success and all have had fun. 

Atria Finland - The Interim Report Q1-2014 finds one positive thing:

“Atria consolidated its market position across all customer accounts compared to the same period last year. Atria's total market share in retail trade was more than 27 per cent in terms of value.”

Good thing is that Atria Finland has now practically consolidated its position as the market leader. Bad thing is that profitability has declined, apparently for a long time. Short term in mind it is evident, that during the crucial Q2 and Q3 quarters price competition will be hard and it will specifically relate to seasonal products, that is, barbeque products.

And new problems are ahead in the autumn.  The main competitor will launch GMO-free products. This will inevitably reduce Atria Finland’s market share in the mid-range, and the highest-end products, which of course are most profitable product categories.

There still another thing.  Recently Atria Finland decided to make changes to the criteria, according to which producer prices are determined.  It was broadly understood that Atria encourages producers to reduce the living space per pig. Although apparently it was not the goal, the damage was already done.  Company’s Facebook pages' comments section filled with consumers’ angry feedback. And equally importantly, current producers’ conclusions and reactions will become clear before the end of the year, when the new pricing model will come into force.

Atria Scandinavia - The Interim Report Q1-2014 gives one alarming piece of info:

“The Swedish cold cuts market declined by about 5 per cent and the cooking sausages market by some 2 per cent.”

Cold cuts product group is one of Atria Scandinavia’s cornerstones. These products are used mainly as sandwich toppings, and the use of bread is falling because low-carb (or let’s say fairly low carb diet) is still going strong and reaches new and wider consumer segments across the whole Group’s market area. Atria Group should re-position this product group perhaps very soon.

Atria Scandinavia has had the advantage of inexpensive meat raw material, but this is by no means reflected in the result. Why is that? 

Export from Horsens’ plant in Denmark to China has now become possible. The company will not be able to succeed in price competition. However, China's middle class is growing and high-quality pork products are increasingly sought after.

Atria Russia - Not a word about the newly launched product group, namely chilled convenience food. It's getting absolutely certain that the launch has been a complete failure.

Atria Baltic - Steadily reporting small losses. What gives? Atria Baltic hardly discards domestic meat, but I guess the company could outsource their pig farming. One day it will happen.

We will look at Atria again in late August but on Friday, May 23th, we are going to look at HKScan’s businesses.  Problems, progress, profits, prosperity.

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