In its latest financial returns, the Northern Irish commodity trading and agribusiness company said its revenue reached £1.1bn (US$ 1.48bn) for the year ending July 2017. In 2016, its turnover was £946m, according to a filing.
The group reported a pre-tax profit of £47m for last year, which was a jump of 30% compared to the £36m achieved in 2016.
Founded in 1896, the W&R Barnett group has grown from its origins as a grain merchant and expanded its operations to include a wide variety of enterprises including dry bulk commodities, derivatives, molasses, oils, feed mills, laboratory testing and storage.
The company trades over three million tons of raw materials per annum with a significant portion of that being soy.
Its subsidiaries - some of which are jointly owned with Origin Enterprises - include United Molasses Group Ltd, feeds firm Thompsons and importer and supplier of animal feed ingredients, R&H Hall, as well as corrugated packaging company, Logson.
Recent acquisitions
Barnett’s feed milling business, Thompsons, produces 850,000 tons of cattle, pig and poultry feed a year and accounts for about 40% of the agricultural feed market in Northern Ireland.
In May 2016, UK poultry giant, Moy Park, sold its McLarnon’s ruminant feed business to Thompson. It continues to produce poultry feed for Moy Park in a dedicated and unique Biosecure Mill as part of a long-standing partnership between the two businesses.
United Molasses Group, which is the holding company of a group of business involved in the global trading and marketing of molasses and related co-products and a provider of bulk liquid storage terminals all operating under the UM brand, completed the acquisition of 72% of the shares in Hungarian ruminant molasses-based liquid feed additive player, Argos Feed Group Zrt, in December 2017.
It said the balance of the shares in that feed ingredient firm are held by, Csaba Varga, who will continue to lead the Hungarian company.