Silvia Naishtat
03/08/2021 18:29
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 03/08/2021 18:37
The dairy leader can't lift her head.
La Serenísima, which belongs to the Mastellone family, the Dallpoint fund and 49% to Arcor, announced yesterday a
loss of $ 2,287 million.
He attributes this to the fact that 75% of his products are under the maximum price regime, with almost no increases.
Another 5% in the most flexible prices taken care of.
In total, 80% had to absorb an
increase in costs that could not be reflected in the sale value.
The 2020 loss reported to the National Securities Commission is similar to the $ 2,400 million red that the company registered in 2018 but is far from the one it had suffered in 2019 when it was 50 million pesos.
In 2020 the firm had a turnover of $ 70,000 million.
Directed by Carlos Agote, owner of the Dallpoint fund, he assures that despite the result, during the annual fiscal year, "it registered a significant increase in liters of processed milk versus 2019, which allowed it to guarantee the
normal supply
of dairy products throughout the national territory. ".
And that despite the pandemic and quarantine, in addition to the drop in dairy consumption, which private sources place at an average of 10%, "it managed to
maintain its sales volumes
, even growing double digits in categories defined as strategic."
These are the so-called culinary categories, creams, butter and dulce de leche.
The good news is that it was able to
increase its exports by 15%, mainly cheese and milk powder, which conquered the Russian market.
Even so, they did not compensate for the losses in the domestic market.
"The balance reflects a deterioration in its margins, mainly due to the increase in the Company's costs,
higher than 40%
, the new costs associated with the pandemic and the impossibility of compensating them by updating the sale prices of its products", they pointed out in the report to the CNV.
In the case of maximum prices, La Serenísima was authorized to increase by
5%
, when, in addition to the increase in raw material, it faced an additional cost of
875 million pesos as a
result of Covid-19 and increases in labor costs, in logistics, in energy and raw milk.
The report to the CNV states that "despite the complications of 2020, Mastellone did not receive
any type of financial or tax assistance from the State
during the year
, be it ATP, REPRO
or another of the official plans arranged by the National Government ".
La Serenísima is 91 years old and reaches
70 thousand points of sale every day.
In July you must face a financial maturity for which you are preparing a refinancing.
He announced it this way: "the Company is confident that it will achieve a refinancing, in suitable conditions for all stakeholders, as it has done in similar situations."
