| €000 | 2009|10 | 2008|09 |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | 805,988 | 804,476 |
| Inter-segment revenue | (83) | (90) |
| Revenue | 805,905 | 804,386 |
| Operating profit/(loss) before exceptional items | 35,668 | (5,501) |
| Operating margin | 4.4 % | neg. |
| Operating profit/(loss) after exceptional items | 30,661 | (5,501) |
| Purchases of property, plant and equipment and intangibles 1 | 26,126 | 30,613 |
| Purchases of non-current financial assets | 403 | 556 |
| Staff count | 4,711 | 4,927 |
1 Excluding goodwill.
Revenue in the Fruit segment, at € 805.9 million, was essentially unchanged from the prior-year level of € 804.4 million. Increases in sales volumes of fruit juice concentrates and slight volume growth in fruit preparations cancelled out the effect of the lower sales prices. The market for fruit preparations showed widely different trends from region to region. Weaker markets in Latin America (especially Argentina and Mexico) were juxtaposed with growth in the Asia-Pacific region and Eastern Europe. Central and Western Europe saw a stable trend in volume. The prices for apple juice concentrate were well below the previous year’s level, although they stabilised towards the end of the 2009|10 financial year and exhibited a rising trend. The Fruit segment accounted for 40.5% of Group revenue (prior year: 39.7%).
Fruit segment operating profit before exceptional items grew to € 35.7 million, from an operating loss of € 5.5 million in the prior year when the apple juice concentrate inventories were written down. Excluding that prior-year non-recurring charge of € 32.4 million, 2009|10 operating profit before exceptional items was up € 8.8 million from the prior year. Significant growth in sales volumes and lower raw material costs more than made up for the impact of lower selling prices in the 2009|10 financial year. The introduction of lean management permitted the cost structure in the concentrate plants to be fine-tuned and brought into line with market requirements. Thanks to the flexibility of its production, AGRANA dealt successfully with the economic-crisis-induced greater volatility of new orders in the fruit preparations plants. At AGRANA Fruit, a total net finance expense of € 5.0 million was recognised for restructuring costs (move of holding company office location) and the goodwill writedown for AGRANA Fruit Bohemia in the Czech Republic.