Press

The AGRANA Group closed its 2004/05 financial year with year-on-year increases in sales revenues and profits.  Sales revenues grew by 13.2 per cent to € 981.0 million, profit from operating activities was 18.2 per cent up on the year at € 90.8 million and consolidated earnings for the year advanced by 41.4 per cent to € 79.9 million.

AGRANA’s provisional figures for the financial year ended 28 February 2005 are as follows:

Steirerobst AG — in which AGRANA holds a 50.8 per cent stake indirectly by way of Steirische Agrarbeteiligungsgesellschaft m.b.H. — was consolidated for the first time as of the second quarter of the 2004/05 financial year.

Although sales revenues grew by 13.2 per cent overall during the financial year, weaker sales of sugar and starch products in all our national markets during the fourth quarter of the financial year meant that did not quite achieve the revenues target of € 996 million that we still thought possible at the end of the third quarter.  Nonetheless, profit from operating activities, profit before tax and consolidated earnings all exceeded our expectations.  As a result, AGRANA can report its best full-year result since being founded in 1988.

The Annual Report and AGRANA’s final results will be announced at the Press Conference held to present the Balance Sheet on 13 May 2005.