Shining amid adversity: CP Foods to tread carefully in 2023 but pledges food safety and sustainability progress
CP Foods recently announced its FY2022 financial results in February 2023, reporting a 20% year-on-year growth in revenue to THB614.2bn (US$17.3bn) and roughly 7.2% growth in net profits to THB13.97bn (US$395.1mn).
The firm attributed this successful growth partially to higher sales across its 40 countries of operation and increased product prices as a result of worldwide inflation – but CEO Prasit Boondoungprasert also warned that other operational related challenges such as African Swine Fever impacts are still ongoing in addition to inflationary challenges, hence the firm will be taking a more conservative tack moving forward.
“We see that challenges [including] outbreaks of human and animal diseases, the consequences of international conflicts, an increase in loan rates and economic downturns will remain [in motion] in 2023,” Boondoungprasert stated during the firm’s financial results announcement.
“These will put pressure on company performance, [and we are] aware of this hence CP Foods will adopt more cautious moves when it comes to operations and investments this year.
“That said, we are confident that we can still perform strongly in 2023 due to our strong foundation and prudent expansion plans.”
One of CP Foods’ main products is pork, and the major animal disease outbreak of concern in 2022 was African Swine Fever (ASF), a viral disease with high fatality rates across many countries in Asia.
“CP Foods implemented strict biosafety controls that enabled our operations to shine despite the ASF outbreak,” he added.
“We also implemented a lot of new technology and innovations to improve production efficiencies – [as a result] our livestock businesses (which pork falls under) have successfully maintained growth in profit margins both locally and overseas, where both grew 22% year-on-year in FY2022.
“In 2023, our key drivers and main areas of focus will be on further improving efficiencies to lower production costs, to expand our capacity in various countries as well as to improve consumption demand in various regions, [all while] also further improving and maintaining strict food safety controls to mitigate the risks of disease.”
Sustainability not to be forgotten
CP Foods is listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, and further promotes itself as being a ‘Sustainable Kitchen of the World’ with a focus on UN Sustainable Development Goals related to food safety, food security, human rights and environmental betterment.
“Sustainability is an important part of our strategy for growth in addition to business growth,” he added.
“CP Foods has switched to renewable energy use in many operations so as to reduce our coal use – so far our factory in Vietnam has stopped using coal since 2020, and most recently in Thailand we have stopped using coal in all our local factories as of December 2022.
“From a food aspect, the goal is to establish food security whilst also ensuring that these products promote health and well-being for our consumers.”
