Mezzan, the Kuwaiti foods distributor whose line-up includes Kettle Cooked Chips and Dana water, yesterday reported a 66 per cent gain in second-quarter profit from a year earlier.
The earnings report is the first by Mezzan as a public company. Its shares listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange on June 11, and have risen 62 per cent since then.
Second-quarter sales rose 15.1 per cent to 51.6 million Kuwaiti dinars (Dh626.3m), the company said. The quarter’s net profit was 7.3m dinars. The company did not provide year-earlier figures.
Mezzan pointed to two reasons for its strong performance. First, more of the busy Ramadan period fell in the second quarter this year. Second, the company made a gain of 2.2m dinars on an insurance settlement. A company representative said the settlement related to a fire at a refinery operated by one of its non-food units, Kuwait Lube Oil Company.
For the first half as a whole, Mezzan said profit rose 45.5 per cent to 12.8m dinars and sales rose 12.8 per cent to 104.5m dinars.
In a news release, the chief executive, Garry Walsh, said the second half was also looking good.
“Going forward,” he said, “we are optimistic about the prospects of growth in market demand throughout the year. We are also continuing to pursue our investment programme to improve and ensure the quality of our products to continue meeting our customers’ needs while maximising shareholder value.”
Mezzan operates in seven countries: Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Afghanistan.
rmckenzie@thenational.ae
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