Baladna posts net profit of QR102m for first 9 months of 2021

Doha: Baladna today announced its results for the nine months period ended September 30, 2021. Baladna continues to deliver strong operational and financial results, reporting a net profit of QR 16 million in Q3 2021 and QR 102 million in first 9 months of year 2021. Despite the continuation of a weak retail market in Q3 2021 (down by 28% in Q3 YoY), increased commodity and feed costs, Baladna presented its resilience and agility by gaining further market share in the retail sector across key products categories - additional market share gains in UHT milk by 1.5% , juice by 2.5%, yoghurt by 3.8%, cheese by 3.9% and cream by 14.4% compared to same period last year. Product portfolio management remains a key strategic pillar of Baladna’s success. Identifying products which are value accretive and in-line with the market requirements, having the research & development capabilities to create innovative products and the ability to bring products successfully to market in a very short period of time. Therefore, Baladna managed despite a temporarily overall lower market demand in Q3 2021, to grow its market share across core categories while at the same time successfully launching 10 SKUs and growing the total product portfolio by 13% compared to the beginning of the year and by 18% compared to the same period in the previous year.  Baladna successfully mitigated the challenges during Q3 2021 brought upon the dairy industry due to an increase in commodity prices and feed costs, as well as the planned reduction in government compensation, through the continuation of costs reduction and further enhancing efficiencies across the whole value chain. As a result, Baladna remains a regional industry leader in terms of net profit margin presented to its shareholders. In addition to the operational business development of its existing facilities and product offering, Management announced in Q2 2021 the company’s plans to establish an evaporated milk processing factory (evaporated milk and sterilized creams). As of Q3 2021, the project is progressing well.