The UBM Group generated a consolidated sales revenue of HUF 198.66 billion in the 2023/2024 financial year, after a record level of HUF 231.61 billion achieved in the 2022/2023 financial year. The main reason for the decrease in sales was a change in the pricing environment: in the 2023/2024 business year the unit prices of both feed and grain crops dropped – in some cases by more than 50 percent, as compared to the base period, which appeared both in trade and production sales prices. Simultaneously, UBM’s after-tax profit reached HUF 1.43 billion for the 2023/2024 financial year, up by some 57 percent, from HUF 913.11 million in the 2022/2023 financial year.

Output volumes also increased significantly. The amount of manufactured feed increased to 454,000 tons, up by 4 percent, the main protein carriers (soybeans and soya meal) trade increased to 240,000 tons, up by 21 percent, while the volume of grain crops and oilseeds increased to 1.05 million tons, up by 27 percent. The total manufactured and traded turnover was thus 1.74 million tons, up by 19 percent overall, in the 2023/2024 financial year.

More than half of the consolidated annual sales comes from exports

In the 2023/2024 financial year, the UBM Group significantly increased the ratio of its exports sales revenue, indeed for the first time in its history, more than half of the company group’s consolidated annual sales already came from exports: while export sales had accounted for 47.5 percent of the group’s total annual sales in the 2022/2023 financial year, this ratio reached 54.3 percent in t2023/2024. The group exports to 15 countries. 25.2 percent of its consolidated sales come from the CEE region, mainly from Romania, while nearly 29 percent comes from Western Europe, mainly from Italy, Austria and Germany.

Last year was characterized by European expansion, developments and an increase in vertical integration

The UBM Group continued with its investments and international expansion programme in the 2023/2024 financial year.

• With the purchase of Mangal Ilona Sertéshizlalda Kft., which is capable of producing 150,000 pigs per year, the group further expanded its vertical integration by becoming an active player in animal husbandry. In addition, the group continues to develop the company which was purchased in the previous financial year: UBM almost doubled the output of pork integration in one year.
• In the first half of the financial year, the group established its latest commercial office in Italy. Milan-based UBM Italy S.r.l. traded 22,000 tons of goods by 30 June 2024, and according to plans, in the 2024/2025 financial year, it will trade some 160,000 tons of feed from corn, wheat, soybeans, barley, along with sunflower, rapeseed and soybean meals in Italy. UBM Italy S.r.l. may acquire 2-3 percent of the Italian import market within three years.
• The group’s Romanian subsidiary, the logistics centre purchased by UBM Agri Trade last year, primarily focuses on the Constanta market, which currently has the highest liquidity in the region. UBM developed the railway connections of the Budești-based logistics centre in the first half of the financial year.
• The company is striving to reduce the energy it uses in production and trade. In an effort to increase the share of renewable resources, the company started the construction of a 4,000 kW solar park in Nyírmeggyes, Hungary in the 2023/2024 financial year. Production is expected to begin next spring.

“Despite global macroeconomic challenges, UBM closed a successful financial year. The company continues to implement its three-year growth strategy, which was announced last year. Simultaneously, we also strive to create value for our expanding circle of shareholders and our 408 employees. Through our research and development, we also contribute to the improvement of Hungary’s agricultural performance, all this in addition to increasing sustainability and improving feed efficiency” Péter Horváth CEO of the UBM Group said.

Along with its annual report, UBM has published its ESG report, which includes the group’s consumption and emission figures for the previous financial year in a standardized (GRI) format. At the end of the current financial year, the ESG report will appear as an integrated part of the company’s annual report.

Established in 1996, and with a turnover of 1.7 million tons UBM is one of the largest feed material traders in Hungary. With a production volume of 454,000 tons, UBM is also Hungary’s market leading feed producer. UBM is the only agricultural company on the Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT), which closed the last trading day at HUF 1,450.